Secrecy Shrouds Three-Way Coalition Talks In Germany

Germany's Social Democratic Party (SPD), which emerged as the largest legislative bloc after last month's elections, began its first formal round of coalition talks with two smaller parties on Thursday, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) reported.

Photo Insert: Outgoing German Chancellor expects a coalition government to be formed much faster than it did after the last elections.

If successful, the talks, which are being conducted in secrecy, would lead to the first-ever coalition between the SPD, the Greens, and the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) at the national level. The last time the country was ruled by a three-way coalition was in the 1950s.

Speaking from Rome, where she met Pope Francis and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel said she expected forming a new government to proceed more quickly than it did four years ago when the process took more than five months.

Merkel pledged her continuing cooperation to Draghi "until I am replaced by the new German chancellor, and that will surely happen more quickly than at the last government formation."

Ahead of the talks, SPD co-leader Norbert Walter-Borjans said: "We now have to see that we tick off the points one at a time, and then we will look, but I'm going into the talks with great confidence." Following exploratory talks after the September 26 poll, the Greens and FDP indicated their readiness on Wednesday to enter into formal talks with the SPD.

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