German minority coalition eyed as SDP offers Merkel's CDU olive branch

In a move that would unite Germany's two largest parties in another 'grand coalition' government, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) has extended an olive branch to Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in hopes of breaking the political deadlock in Berlin and avoiding another election.

Pressure to reverse his anti-Merkel stance had been applied to SPD leader Martin Schulz after the smaller Free Democratic Party (FDP) dropped out of coalition talks earlier in November.

While Merkel and her centre-right CDU's alliance with Bavaria's Christian Social Union (CSU) remained the largest political force in the new Bundestag after the September elections, far-right extremist parties snatched many seats from underneath her, splintering the nation's historic three-party centre and leaving the Chancellor with very few options to avoid fresh elections.

The SDP and Schulz, who held a closed-door meeting with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier ahead of the intraparty debate, had yet to confirm whether or not it was prepared to enter government with the SDU and the CSU, but Steinmeier, himself a former SDP foreign minister, had repeatedly urged party leaders on all sides to show more flexibility and willingness to compromise.

As he pointed to the "special responsibility" of the nation's two biggest establishment parties, Volker Kauder, head of the CDU-CSU group, told Germany's Südwest Presse that he would be happy "if the current partners in government found each other once again."

Schulz had said on Monday that, as he interpreted the election outcome as a vote against forming another grand coalition, he was unwilling to enter talks of reviving the deal with the CDU but also said that the SDP was ready to go into a new round of elections.

Schulz himself had seemed to reassess his stance by Wednesday when he said he was "fully aware of its responsibility in the current difficult situation," before adding "I'm sure we will find a good solution for our country in the coming days and weeks."

On Thursday, multiple SDP MPs came out publicly in favour of a minority government headed up by the veteran Chancellor.

Social Democrat Karl Lauterbach, said, "We will, if nothing else is possible, also have to think about a grand coalition."

"If you want to implement projects, if you really want to move forward social democracy in Germany, then you have to be in government," added Stefan Zierke.

Schulz' leadership could potentially be called into question at the party's conference in December in an attempt to rebuild from its poor showing at the election, with unnamed SPD figures telling German outlet Süddeutsche Zeitung that he would unlikely be the party's candidate were another election called.