Delegates from Germany's SPD party have voted in favor of entering into coalition talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU/CSU and possibly forming a new government, German media reported on Sunday.
The SPD party congress made the decision with 362 "Yes" votes versus 279 "No" votes.
SPD party leader Martin Schulz expressed his satisfaction with the outcome of the meeting.
"Of course we are all relieved," Schulz was quoted by German Das Bild newspaper as saying. "We will try to bring the party together after this hard discussion," he stated.
Many SPD members believed that another four years in coalition with Merkel's CDU/CSU would mean that the Social Democrats would completely lose the distinctiveness of their party, much of which they have already sacrificed for the sake of reaching a political compromise.
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Opponents of a renewed coalition are also unhappy about concessions made by the SPD leader Martin Schulz in preliminary talks with Merkel.
Sunday's conference has been a source of stress for the German political elites, as its outcome has been considered one of the key factors determining the country's political future
Now the two major parties will be able to start the final round of talks to form a new government (so far, there have been only preliminary talks exploring such a possibility). But if the majority would have voted no, it could have meant that Germany would face new parliamentary elections, "and, conceivably, the end of Merkel's chancellorship," DW wrote earlier.
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Germany has been witnessing a political crisis over the last few months, as talks to form a new government collapsed in November 2017, after the Free Democratic Party (FDP) withdrew from negotiations on forming the so called "Jamaica coalition" with the CDU/CSU and the Greens. German Chancellor Angela Merkel's party is now trying to renew a grand coalition with the Social Democrats led by Martin Schulz.
