Merkel and Schroeder in showdown meeting
Conservative leader Angela Merkel and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder headed into a showdown today over who will lead a new government, seeking to end a post-election stalemate that is delaying efforts to tackle Germany’s stubborn economic problems.
Three weeks after parliamentary elections, opposition conservatives and Schroeder’s Social Democrats moved toward the formation of a so-called “grand coalition” of the country’s main parties of the right and left.
