Conservative opposition leader Angela Merkel yesterday confirmed she had a green light to become the first woman to lead Germany in a grand coalition with Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats as junior partner.

Formal coalition negotiations opened yesterday between her Christian Democratic alliance (CDU/CSU) and Schroeder's Social Democrats (SPD). Talks are expected to be wrapped up by November 12, she said.

"The CDU/CSU will occupy the chancellery," said Merkel adding that her party had voted unanimously to start negotiations with the SPD.

Asked how she had been informed that Schroeder had given up demands to stay on as chancellor, Merkel declined to reveal any details.

"I won't say anything about that," said Merkel who showed little emotion during her brief news conference.

Schroeder who had been trying to cling to power after narrowly losing last month's elections agreed to leave the government, said the Passauer Neue Presse newspaper, quoting the chancellor.

"The course of my life now looks different," said Schroeder as quoted by the paper.

Schroeder did not appear before the press and instead sent SPD party leader Franz Muentefering to talk to reporters.

Asked if the Chancellor had formally announced he would stand down, Muentefering replied: "We did not talk about that - we didn't discuss personnel issues."

Analysts said Schroeder is holding back on his formal announcement to keep up pressure on the CDU/CSU for coalition negotiations.

The deal for a grand coalition of Merkel's CDU/CSU, with Schroeder's SPD as junior partner, will end weeks of often acrimonious talks to form a new government after Germany's inconclusive September 18 vote.

Executive committee members of both the CDU/CSU and the SPD voted in favour of the grand coalition, party representatives confirmed.

Merkel still must be elected as chancellor by the Bundestag, parliament's lower house and this is not expected to take place before next month, observers said.

The demand that Merkel head a grand coalition of the conservatives with Schroeder's SPD has been a "non-negotiable precondition" for the CDU/CSU throughout talks.

SPD's high price

But the price exacted by the SPD for Schroeder's apparent decision to give up the chancellery is very high.

Sources said the SPD has secured control of almost all key ministry portfolios totalling half the posts in the cabinet.

The SPD will take over the Foreign Ministry, the Finance Ministry and the Labor Ministry. It will also hold the ministries of justice, health, transport, environment and foreign aid, said the sources.

Merkel's CDU/CSU will get the Defence Ministry, the Interior Ministry and a new ministry for economics and high technology. It will also hold the portfolios for consumer protection and agriculture, education, and family affairs.

The chancellor and chancellery chief of staff count as two additional posts for the CDU/CSU. This leaves both the SPD and the CDU/CSU with eight cabinet-level posts each.

Bavaria's state premier and CSU Chairman Edmund Stoiber will move to Berlin and head the Economics and High-tech Ministry, sources said. Senior CDU stalwart Wolfgang Schaeuble will be interior minister, a post he held from 1989 to 1991 under former chancellor Helmut Kohl.

The consumer affairs and Farm Ministry will go to Horst Seehofer; the family portfolio to Ursula von der Leyen; and education to Annette Schavan, sources said. CDU/CSU chancellery chief will be Norbert Roettgen.

This would be Germany's first "grand coalition" government at national level in almost four decades. The SPD and CDU shared power briefly in 1966-69.

Four of Germany's 16 states Schleswig-Holstein, Saxony, Bremen and Brandenburg are currently ruled by "grand coalitions" forged by the SPD and CDU.

Opinion polls show most Germans are in favor of power-sharing between the major parties.

The fight over the chancellorship follows last month's elections, which produced political deadlock in Germany with neither the SPD nor Merkel's CDU/CSU in combination with their respective political allies securing enough seats to gain a parliamentary majority.

While the CDU/CSU emerged as the biggest political bloc in the new parliament, the SPD had insisted that it was the still the strongest individual party given that the conservatives are comprised of the CDU and their separate Bavarian sister party, the CSU.

Foreign relations

During the press conference yesterday, Merkel vowed to continue the policy of close ties with China forged by outgoing Chancellor Schroeder and his predecessor Helmut Kohl.

"Ties to China are important," said Merkel.

Merkel said the upgrading of Berlin's relations with China, begun by Kohl who was in office through 1998 and expanded under Schroeder from 1998 to 2005, would continue under her leadership.

At the same time, Merkel pledged to improve ties with the United States. She said her leadership would ensure "good transatlantic relations" linking Germany and the United States in a spirit of mutual "confidence," although it did not mean they would always agree.

(China Daily October 11, 2005)