Key minor parties meet to decide who will succeed Merkel as Germany’s chancellor

Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck are leading figures in the German Green party (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

The two parties that are expected to determine who will become Germany’s next chancellor have started talks to bridge their differences and declared that they got off to a good start.

Sunday’s parliamentary election left Germany’s traditional big parties effectively needing the support of the third and fourth-placed parties, the environmentalist Greens and the business-friendly Free Democrats, to take the top job after outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel’s 16-year reign.