BERLIN (Reuters) - A senior member of the pro-business Free Democrat
(FDP) party that is likely to be a partner in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s new
government said in a
magazine interview he did not expect the coalition to form
before the end of the year.
Next week Merkel’s conservatives - who remain the biggest bloc in
parliament despite losing support to the far right in a September election -
are due to start talks on forming a tricky “Jamaica” coalition with the FDP and
the Greens.
The alliance, which derives its name from the three parties’ colours
matching the Jamaican flag, is untried at national level and is likely to be
fraught with disagreements on issues like migrants, tax, European Union reform
and the environment.
Asked whether the parties could work together, FDP deputy leader Wolfgang
Kubicki told news magazine Der Spiegel: ”It can succeed. The most important
thing is that trust needs to be built between participants and that takes time.
“That’s why it would be illusory to believe we could conclude
negotiations by Christmas.”
Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Thursday he was optimistic
that Merkel and her conservatives - of which he is a member - would be able to
forge a new coalition government before Christmas. [nL8N1MN61D]
Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian sister party (CSU)
removed a major stumbling block to the coalition talks on Sunday by ending a
dispute over migrant policy with an agreement to limit to 200,000 the number of
people Germany would accept per year on humanitarian grounds. [nL8N1MJ0EG]
But Kubicki said the deal was just a starting point: “If the CDU and CSU
think their agreement needs to be implemented exactly like that, we’ll stand up
and leave,” he said.
Speculation is rife that the FDP will demand the post of finance minister
as a price for joining a “Jamaica” coalition and Kubicki said it was up to FDP
leader Christian Lindner to decide whether Lindner would fill that post or be
FDP parliamentary floor leader.
But Volker Kauder, the CDU’s leader in parliament, recently said the
Finance Ministry should remain in the hands of his party to further the work of
Wolfgang Schaeuble - expected to become parliamentary president.
Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, a member of Merkel’s conservatives,
urged the parties to be pragmatic.
“We’d be well advised not to be perfectionists in the upcoming coalition
negotiations but rather to be open and to build trust that a government will be
formed that acts sensibly even during unforeseeable crises,” he told newspaper
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
0 Comments