Germany Inches Closer to a New, Old Government<br />Andrea Nahles, parliamentary whip for the Social Democrats, said<br />that her party’s leadership would meet on Wednesday with its counterparts from Ms. Merkel’s conservatives to begin the process that a majority of Germans, according to recent opinion polls, hope will lead to a fourth chancellorship for Ms. Merkel.<br />Ms. Merkel’s Christian Democrats lost even more support — 7 percentage points —<br />but remained the strongest party, with the task of seeking partners to build a government.<br />Last week, the chancellor sat down with Mr. Steinmeier, Mr. Schulz,<br />and the head of the Christian Social Union, the Bavarian sister party of her own Christian Democratic Union, to determine whether they could talk.<br />8, 2017<br />BERLIN — Germany inched toward a new government on Friday, as leaders from the center-left Social Democrats, the previous partners<br />of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative bloc, agreed to sit down next week for exploratory talks on resuming the arrangement.<br />After that effort collapsed last month, the country’s president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, whose responsibility it would be to call new elections, told politicians it was their job, not<br />that of voters, to find a solution, leading Ms. Merkel to turn again to her most recent partners.<br />Mr. Schulz said that What matters is what we are able to implement,<br />The far-right party Alternative for Germany, or AfD, was voted into Parliament for the first time, as the third-strongest party,<br />draining support from the two main parties in a significant showing of voter anger over immigration and inequality.
