Schroeder and Merkel prepare for coalition talks

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and opposition leader Angela Merkel were preparing for face-to-face talks today on their rival claims to lead Germany after its inconclusive election.

Merkel’s conservatives edged Schroeder’s Social Democrats in Sunday’s parliamentary vote and ended his seven-year coalition with the environmentalist Greens.

But the margin of victory was so narrow that Schroeder has refused to acknowledge defeat, insisting he should remain as chancellor to manage reforms that have so far failed to fire up Europe’s largest economy.

With both major parties unable so far to muster enough support from smaller groups to form a majority, leaders have insisted ahead of today’s talks that they will look seriously at joining up in a “grand coalition”.

But it remains unclear how Schroeder and Merkel will resolve their competing claims to be chancellor, raising speculation both may have to stand aside or that the country will have to vote anew.

Merkel was to meet first today with leaders of the Free Democrats. The pro-business party was Merkel’s preferred coalition partner, but the two parties fell short of a majority.

With the Greens all but ruling out joining that constellation, and the Free Democrats refusing even to talk to Schroeder’s party, the Social Democrats and conservatives are under growing pressure to seek common ground for a left-right alliance.

All Germany’s established parties have ruled out talks with the Left Party, a grouping of former East German communists and renegade Social Democrats opposed to cuts in the country’s creaking welfare programs.