SPD wants to discuss coalition with Merkel

berlin - The German party SPD keeps open the possibility to negotiate a new coalition with the CDU / CSU combination. A motion to stop this from the young Social Democrats did not win a majority Thursday at the party congress in Berlin.

Thursday started the three-day conference of the party. The most important question is whether the Social Democrats step back into a so-called GroKo (big coalition) with CDU / CSU.

In the last elections, the SPD suffered a major defeat. Party leader Schulz then stated that he was in the opposition and did not want to join a new government. He has since come back from that.

The vote in which the approximately six hundred delegates were clearly in favor of further discussions followed long hours of debates. Schulz had made a strong case for further discussions with the camp of Chancellor Merkel. 'We must not govern at any price. But we also should not prevent ourselves from being at all costs ', according to the SPD leader.

New calls are on the agenda for next week. In January, the SPD will then vote on a special party day whether or not a coalition will actually be negotiated. Any coalition treaty will be presented to the 440,000 members in a written vote.

Multi-delegation by the SPD is current after negotiations between CDU / CSU and the Greens and the liberal FDP failed.