Merkel, Steinmeier make appeals to avert re-elections
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E-mail Xinhua, November 22, 2017
Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier appealed to German parties on Tuesday to assume their responsibility towards voters and avert a re-run of federal elections.
CDU politician and German chief of staff of the Chancellery Peter Altmaier rejected calls to either form a minority government or hold re-elections after the collapse of "Jamaica" coalition negotiations after no single party has won overall majority in the Sept. 24 elections.
"We cannot just go away and hide ourselves in the bushes following an election," Altmaier told public broadcaster ZDF. His comments were widely interpreted by media as a stab at the Free Democratic Party (FDP) which triggered the collapse of official talks between them late on Sunday night.
As a consequence, Germany now finds itself in the midst of a political crisis as it lacks a legislative majority to form the country's next government. Re-elections could cost up to 92 million euros (US$108) based on the cost of the last national poll in September, according to Spiegel newspaper's estimates.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier similarly opposed immediate re-elections and instead urged parties to assume their responsibility to form a government. Steinmeier reminded the political factions represented in the new Federal Parliament, including his own German Social Democratic Party (SPD), that they were obliged to advance the common good.
Steinmeier has been in and out of several urgent talks with party representatives over the past two days in a bid to overcome the current impasse. Nevertheless, the SPD reiterated once again on Tuesday that it was not available to form another "Grand Coalition" with the CDU and CSU.
SPD parliamentary faction leader Andrea Nahles said on ZDF that it was Merkel, and not her party, which had the mandate to form a government.
Nahles added the SPD would not "shy away" from re-elections, although she also called on the "Jamaica" parties not to impose too much pressure on themselves in terms of time limits as they sought to resolve the situation.
While the current situation was "very difficult", the SPD politician refused to speak of a "crisis."
In this regard, Nahles was seconded by now Parliamentary President Wolfgang Schaeuble who said that the current situation was a "test, but not a state crisis."
Schaeuble further urged German parties to make compromises in order to enable them to form a stable government. Both politicians and voters would be wrong to view such consensus-seeking measures as weakness.
"We all share responsibility for our country," the CDU politician said during the second session of the Federal Parliament since its constitution. He noted that this responsibility extended to Europe and the wider world as well which expected Germany to act as a stabilising factor.
"It is clear that we must govern," Schaeuble added.
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