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SPD leaders agree to Merkel coalition talks

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SPD leaders agree to Merkel coalition talks
Photo: DPA

Leaders of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) agreed on Sunday to launch coalition talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel as she attempts to form a government for Europe's top economy.

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An overwhelming majority of the 200 SPD members backed their leaders' recommendations to open formal coalition talks with Merkel following a hefty

defeat for the party in September 22nd elections.

"We want to start coalition negotiations and we have set ourselves the goal of carrying them out successfully," party leader Sigmar Gabriel told reporters. "We are going to negotiate hard so that at the end of the process we have a government capable of action. For this to happen, compromises are required.”

The centre-left party will now enter into what will likely be a lengthy process of negotiating with Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and their Bavarian allies, the CSU.

Gabriel pledged to put any agreement between the two parties to a vote of the some 470,000 rank-and-file SPD members.

Many SPD members are wary of another tie-up with Merkel, after their coalition in 2005-2009 resulted in a heavy defeat at the ballot box.

Gabriel outlined several red lines ahead of the negotiations, chief among which is the introduction of a nationwide minimum wage of €8.50.

The SPD, which campaigned on a platform of greater social justice in Germany, would also demand stepped-up measures against poverty among

pensioners, improved terms for refugees and a greater assault on youth unemployment, Gabriel said.

Merkel stormed to victory in last month's elections but fell just short of being able to govern without needing a coalition partner.

She entered into exploratory talks with both the SPD and the ecologist Greens but negotiations with the latter broke down.

Long coalition negotiations are the norm in Germany's consensus-based political system and Gabriel said he hoped to "make it possible to form a

government before Christmas".

"I am sure we will come to a balanced compromise," CDU secretary general Hermann Gröhe told news agency DPA.

READ MORE: BMW donation to Merkel party sparks fears

AFP/tsb

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