Merkel and SPD clinch coalition deal two months after vote

By Stephen Brown and Erik Kirschbaum BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives and the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) reached a deal early on Wednesday on forming a "grand coalition" after wrangling through the night, meaning she should be able to form a government by Christmas. Two months after Merkel's landslide election victory and a month after negotiations began, Germany's two biggest political forces clinched a deal at about 5 a.m. (0400 GMT) that both sides said they could live with. "No new taxes and no new debts." Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament and a senior SPD negotiator, called it an "excellent result" for his party, whose participation in a Merkel government still depends, however, on a ballot among 474,000 card-carrying SPD members. That adds uncertainty to a process that has dragged on for months, preventing Germany's European partners from pushing ahead with major reforms like a banking union.

Continue reading...