BONN, Germany �� Germany's Social Democrats backed coalition talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel after a divisive party convention, marking a potential breakthrough toward her fourth term.
A narrow majority of the 600 SPD delegates gathered in Bonn voted in favor of negotiations to renew a "grand coalition" with Merkel's Christian Democratic Union-led bloc. The vote followed pleas by party and labor leaders to move forward with a joint policy outline reached Jan. 12, rather than walk away from government.
"If we can achieve something good for people in this country, if we can achieve something good for the peoples of Europe, then we should do it," SPD Chairman Martin Schulz said in his closing appeal before the vote. "I think this is the more courageous path to take."
Attention now shifts to Merkel and fellow leaders of her CDU, who were due to meet in Berlin later Sunday to assess the outcome of the vote. Her party is due to recommend the resumption of coalition talks as soon as Monday.
Sunday's convention was the biggest obstacle to Merkel's plan to govern with the SPD. While the party will give its members the final say over any coalition agreement negotiated in the weeks ahead, the vote was the clearest sign yet that a four-month political stalemate is ending and Merkel is moving toward re-inauguration, possibly by mid-March. Schulz, who led the SPD to its worst election result since World War II in September's inconclusive election, made the case for another coalition, pledging to press Merkel's bloc for expanded commitments on health care, hardship rules for refugees who want to bring family members to Germany and curbing layoffs of temporary workers.
