• published: 04 Feb 2018
• views: 5

ANGELA Merkel has missed her self-imposed Sunday deadline to form a coalition government as the German chancellor admitted she has no idea when talks with the Social Democrats (SPD) will conclude. Germany has been without a government for more than four months and concerns are growing across the world that Europe’s largest economy may not be in a position to introduce key policies as Brexit and eurozone reform issues loom. Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party and the SPD had agreed to renew the ‘grand coalition’ by today, but it now appears talks will continue into the beginning of next week as major differences prevent the chancellor from forming a coalition. The parties had planned to negotiate until midnight (11pm GMT) tonight but a senior SPD member has said talks will stop for today before resuming on Monday morning. SPD General Secretary Lars Klingbeil said: "We had a very constructive day today and we reached a lot of agreements”, adding negotiators had realised the parties remain far apart on some issues and wanted to go over them in more detail. He added: "So we've decided together that we won't have a night session tonight but rather that we will continue our negotiations and discussions in a detailed and focused way here in Willy Brandt House from 10 o'clock tomorrow," referring to the SPD headquarters. Even if they’d managed to clinch a deacon Sunday night, it would likely have been too late to call together the 91 politicians who need to be there to be informed about a coalition deal before the news is made public. Speaking ahead of today’s round of talks, Mrs Merkel said: “It's not yet possible to say how long it will last - we did good groundwork yesterday but there are still important issues that need to be resolved.” Meanwhile, fellow conservative and Merkel ally Reiner Haseloff told German media he doesn’t think the negotiations could still fail. Asked by reporters whether the talks could still result in failure to form a government, he said: "I don't think so. I hope not. I can't think of any topic that is insurmountable." "So we've decided together that we won't have a night session tonight but rather that we will continue our negotiations and discussions in a detailed and focused way here in Willy Brandt House from 10 o'clock tomorrow," he said, referring to the SPD headquarters. Members have so far agreed on migration, energy and farming as Mrs Merkel desperately attempts to claw back power in her fourth term as chancellor. SPD deputy Manuela Schwesig urged the conservatives to compromise on abolishing fixed-term contracts for workers and reforming Germany's public-private healthcare system. She said: "I don't think Mrs Merkel can explain why there can't be any movement there." The SPD wants to prove to its sceptical members that it would be able to push through those core policies in the role of junior partner to make another "grand coalition" more appealing. Many of the SPD's 443,000 members - who will get to vote on any coalition deal - would prefer their party to revamp in opposition rather than join another alliance with Mrs Merkel after suffering their worst post-war election result in September. European Union leaders will be watching the stumbling coalition talks with growing concerns as Brussels prepares for the next round of Brexit talks. Without a stable German government, this could prove harder than first feared.