Philip Oltermann, London, Berlin, 7 Feb. 2018<\/p>\n
Junior SPD party is expected to fill finance, foreign and labour ministries under agreement.<\/p>\n
Angela Merkel<\/a> has exposed herself to criticism from her own party after she took a crucial step towards ending a four-month period of political uncertainty by reaching a coalition agreement at the cost of giving the centre-left Social Democrats a greater role in government.<\/p>\n Following a marathon of all-night dealmaking sessions and several missed deadlines, Merkel\u2019s Christian Democratic Union on Wednesday agreed on the terms of a fresh deal with the SPD, whose supporters will now get a final say on the agreement through a membership vote.<\/p>\n But the prize of a renewed \u201cgrand coalition\u201d is likely to come at the cost of ceding key ministries to her junior coalition partner.<\/p>\n The SPD leader, Martin Schulz, can be optimistic about rallying support for a new term in government after securing three influential trophy ministries. The draft coalition deal foresees the centre-left party filling the finance, foreign and labour ministries, as well as the roles for family, justice and the environment.<\/p>\n Schulz, who had ruled out playing a role in a Merkel government in the immediate aftermath of last year\u2019s elections, is reportedly planning to hand his party leadership to the former labour minister Andrea Nahles and take charge of the foreign ministry himself.<\/p>\n The SPD mayor of Hamburg, Olaf Scholz, seen as a pragmatic centrist from the party\u2019s liberal wing, is set to succeed the powerful Wolfgang Sch\u00e4uble in the finance ministry, a key role for the future direction of the eurozone.<\/p>\n The draft coalition agreement hints at a departure from Sch\u00e4uble\u2019s hawkish focus on balanced budgets, promising a \u201csolidaristic sharing of responsibilities\u201d and a preparedness to increase German contributions to the EU budget.<\/p>\n At a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, Merkel said that divvying up ministries had \u201cnot been easy\u201d and acknowledged her party\u2019s disgruntlement at the loss of the finance ministry.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d wager that the SPD didn\u2019t even believe it could get the finance ministry when the negotiations started,\u201d the veteran CDU politician Wolfgang Bosbach told German media on Wednesday. \u201cThe CDU should have insisted on keeping the positions it already had.\u201d<\/p>\n A boosted interior ministry with an additional focus on housing construction and life in regional areas has meanwhile reportedly been handed to Horst Seehofer of the CSU, the Christian Democrats\u2019 sister party \u2013 a consistent critic of Merkel\u2019s policy course during the refugee crisis.<\/p>\n Such a constellation would leave Merkel\u2019s own party with only the roles for the economy, defence, health, education and agriculture, and no truly high-profile ministries apart from her own chancellory.<\/p>\n The coalition deal also complicates the question over who could eventually replace Merkel once she decides to step down. Two politicians recently mooted as potential successors, the young rightwinger Jens Spahn and the more liberal-leaning \u201cmini-Merkel\u201d Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, are not expected to play roles in the next government at all.<\/p>\n The CDU and the SPD have been in coalition talks since the first week of January after the collapse of Merkel\u2019s attempt to form an unorthodox \u201cJamaica\u201d coalition<\/a>with the pro-business Free Democrats and the Green party.<\/p>\n Deadlocks over employment law and SPD-proposed reforms to the multi-payer health service resulted in the CDU and SPD missing several deadlines they had set themselves.<\/p>\n As the talks ran into Wednesday morning, the chancellor cancelled an official lunchtime meeting with Italy\u2019s prime minister, Paolo Gentiloni.<\/p>\n Once the two parties have officially presented their coalition agreement, the SPD will allow their 460,000 members a vote on whether the party should formally enter a governing coalition with Merkel\u2019s party.<\/p>\n Schulz, whose party has played junior partner to Merkel\u2019s in the government for the past four years, initially ruled out the possibility of another grand coalition under his leadership.<\/p>\n The SPD\u2019s leadership faces opposition from a number of groups, including its own youth wing, the Young Socialists, who believe it should reinvent itself in opposition<\/a> rather than seek another term in government.<\/p>\n Only SPD members who joined the party before 6pm on Tuesday will be able to vote. At a special party summit in January, only a narrow majority of SPD delegates voted in favour<\/a> of continuing coalition talks.<\/p>\n At the elections in September<\/a>, the SPD plunged to its worst result since the second world war, winning just over 20%. And despite emerging as the strongest party, with 33%, the performance of Merkel\u2019s CDU also disappointed supporters.<\/p>\n