GERMANY: Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and Christian Democrat (CDU) leader Angela Merkel have opened the door open to a grand coalition between their parties, but have agreed to disagree for now over which of them should lead Germany's next government.
The two political rivals met for an hour of "talks about talks" in Berlin yesterday, which Dr Merkel said were "extremely constructive considering the circumstances".
"I can't image that Mr Schröder has the intention of becoming vice-chancellor and I made clear that I have the mandate to form a government," said Dr Merkel, adding that the two sides would meet next Wednesday.
The CDU and the Social Democrats (SPD) won 35 and 34 per cent of the votes respectively in last Sunday's general election, not enough to allow them govern with their preferred coalition partner. They now face a choice between a three-party coalition, new elections or a grand coalition.
The personality question will be crucial in these talks: each side is demanding the other stand aside, prompting speculation that both Mr Schröder and Dr Merkel will have to be ditched to clear the way for a grand coalition.
Yesterday's talks took place in a heated atmosphere after CDU politicians accused the SPD of planning a parliamentary "putsch".
Newspaper reports suggested the SPD wanted to change the parliamentary rules of procedure and split the Bundestag factions of the CDU and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), led by Edmund Stoiber.
A rule dating back to 1969 allows the two parties to operate as one in parliament; abolishing the rule would make the SPD the largest Bundestag faction and give it the right to propose its lead candidate as chancellor.
SPD leader Franz Müntefering said his party was not planning any change, but the tactical leak was clearly intended to increase the negotiating pressure on the CDU.
Mr Stoiber said Mr Schröder had to "accept that he has not won the election and that he has lost it . . . they cannot correct the election result with legal tricks . . . it will not work".
Mr Stoiber came under further attack yesterday after the Süddeutsche Zeitung reported that he told close party colleagues that Dr Merkel's "cool and heartless language" caused the party's disastrous election result on Sunday.
"Don't believe everything you read," laughed Mr Stoiber yesterday, but the reported remarks have increased suspicions that CDU leaders are holding their fire on Dr Merkel until coalition negotiations are over.
This morning the CDU will hold its first exploratory talks with the Green Party with a view to a three-way coalition with the liberal Free Democrats. Outgoing Green Party foreign minister Joschka Fischer said he "cannot see how that is supposed to work".
"The way things are looking at the moment it will boil down to a grand coalition," says Mr Fischer in today's Tageszeitung newspaper, describing the seven-year SPD-Green coalition as "irrevocably over".
Mr Fischer has announced his move to the Bundestag backbenches and describes himself in today's interview as "one of the last live rock'n'rollers" of German politics. The new generation of politicians are just "mimers", he says.