Threats, name-calling and a whole lot of dramatic posturing: talks among four fractious parties to form a new government under German Chancellor Angela Merkel have proved more fiery than fruitful so far.
September's
inconclusive general election left the camps, which span the political
spectrum, scrambling to form a stable government under Merkel, with the
outcome of negotiations highly uncertain.
"We have four parties sitting at the table that are really very far apart," said Katrin Goering-Eckardt of the left-leaning Greens on the talks with Merkel's conservative bloc and the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP).
The
goal is to cobble together by year's end an unprecedented federal
"Jamaica coalition" -- nicknamed after the parties' colours, which match
those of the Caribbean nation's flag.
Merkel,
who emerged from the poll weakened, will size up progress of the
exploratory talks on Friday, with the stakes extraordinarily high for
all involved.
A failure of the
negotiations could trigger new elections, which would likely cost
Merkel's conservatives particularly dearly and further boost the
far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
"If the alliance does not come together, Merkel is finished," weekly newspaper Die Zeit said.
The
talks, which started slowly last month, are now gathering pace. But
last week saw bitter clashes on hot-button issues including immigration
and climate protection.
There was so
little progress that the negotiators decided largely to leave those
topics out of this week's discussions in the hope of making headway on
less contentious points.
'Mother Teresa' type
The personal chemistry among the wildly different personalities in the mix has also proved volatile.
FDP
negotiator Wolfgang Kubicki, who annoyed the Greens' Goering-Eckhardt
at the start of the talks with a rakish kiss of the hand, accused her
this week of being a self-righteous "Mother Teresa" type.
"You get the feeling that if you have a different opinion you are a bad person," he complained.
Alexander Dobrindt of
the CSU, the Bavarian sister party to Merkel's Christian Democrats,
accused the Greens of "provoking a breakdown" of the negotiations in
sticking to a welcoming stance toward refugees.
"Anyone
who fails to see the AfD's success and its links to the refugee crisis
is not really serious about forming a government," he said, referring to the anti-immigration party whose support surged to nearly 13 percent in the election.
Political scientist Ursula Muench dismissed many of the broadsides as play-acting by seasoned professionals.
But
she said there were nevertheless "fundamental" differences,
particularly between the CSU and the Greens, on globalisation and
cultural identity that would be extremely tough to bridge.
"These
aren't about little compromises you can make -- they revolve around the
question 'how open or sheltered do you want to make German society?'" Muench, who runs the Academy for Political Education near Munich, told AFP.
"Even if you manage to bend over backwards, how can you convince your own base that you still represent their interests?"
Conspicuously
absent from the sniping has been Merkel, Forbes magazine's most
powerful woman again this year, whose above-the-fray style has kept her
at the helm of Europe's top economy for 12 years.
'Decisive rounds of poker'
Participants
in the talks say that despite the flame-throwing in the media, the
atmosphere set by Merkel behind closed doors is "business-like" and
pragmatic.
"This is not our desired
coalition. But if we spend five weeks in talks and then say 'never
mind', we'd better have a good reason to give the voters," one negotiator said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
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