Berlin – Germany’s electoral standoff moved from the inconvenient to the impossible Monday, as leaders of the country’s four largest political parties spent the day primarily outlining whom they wouldn’t work with in a future coalition government.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, whose Social Democratic Party came in second in Sunday’s elections, with 34 percent of the vote, insisted that he should remain Germany’s leader, while backers of Christian Democrat Angela Merkel, whose party won 35 percent, said she should lead a new government.
Political observers said the impasse might take weeks to resolve, a prospect that worries economists in a nation where unemployment is 11 percent and the economy has grown only marginally for years.
Some suggested that new elections are likely. If no government is agreed on by Oct. 18, when Schroeder’s current term ends, new elections could be called.
The Christian Democrats had been expected to win Sunday. But missteps by Merkel and a hard campaign by Schroeder allowed the Social Democrats to close the gap, which polls had showed at one time to be as wide as 20 points.
The Christian Democrats won about 225 seats in Parliament while the Social Democrats finished with about 222.
Christian Democrat ally the Free Democrats got 10 percent of the vote, or 61 seats, while Social Democrat ally the Green Party won 8 percent, or about 51 seats.
Parliament will have at least 598 members – the number can change, based on Germany’s system of proportional representation – meaning that one party must control at least 300 seats to form a government.
Leaders for the Green Party and the Liberal Party made it clear Monday that that goal was all but unattainable.
The Green Party said it wouldn’t join any coalition that the Christian Democrats led. The Liberal Party said the same about any coalition that the Social Democrats led.
All sides have rejected working with a fifth group, the New Left, made up of former communists, largely from the former East Germany. It won 54 seats.
That leaves the possibility of a so-called grand coalition between the Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats. But Schroeder said Monday that he would serve in such a coalition only as chancellor. Christian Democrats responded that they had won more votes.
