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Horst Seehofer -- the leader of the Christian Democrats (CDU) ally, the Christian Social Union -- is calling on Angela Merkel and Social Democratic Party (SPD) leader Martin Schulz to make sure that the talks between Merkel's CDU and Schulz's SPD are successful. Seehofer says the Social Democrats shooting down the results of the talks on Sunday would absolutely be a "catastrophe" for Germany. When asked by German newspaper Bild whether he has faith in the SPD -- which seems to be internally divided on the question whether or not it should form a coalition with the CDU -- Seehofer...

The expected ‘Grand Coalition’ of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) and Martin Schulz’s Social Democrats (SPD) have declared the migrant crisis to be “over” and agreed to let in up to 220,000 migrants each year. The two parties have agreed to allow between 180,000 to 220,000 migrants per year, claiming their plans will control migration in such a way that “a situation like 2015 is not repeated”, Die Welt reports. Around 1,000 migrants will be allowed into Germany per month as part of the family reunification programme thanks to lobbying by Schulz — a former President of the...

Angela Merkel has won a fourth term, but official results have shown she'll have a "tough road" for coalition talks. While the CDU remains the largest party, the far-right AfD will be the third biggest political force. With all 299 constituencies reporting, Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party the CSU came out ahead in Germany's national election on Sunday, with 33 percent of the vote. Rival Social Democrats (SPD) led by Martin Schulz tumbled to a mere 20.5 percent, while the Green and Left parties remained about the same as they did in 2013,...

Thread for German Election: Polls close - first projections Polls have closed. The first ARD projection by Infratest dimap is: CDU/CSU: 32.5 SPD: 20 AfD: 13.5 FDP: 10.5 Green: 9.5 Left: 9

The Central Council of Muslims in Germany, as well as the German Muslim League (Deutsche Muslim Liga) and the Islamische Zeitung newspaper on Monday published the results of a survey sent to the parties expected to be voted in to the next Bundestag. Of the 61.5 million eligible voters in Germany’s nationwide elections due to be held September 24, about 1.5 million are Muslim. The survey’s publishers Aiman Mazyek, Belal El-Mogaddedi and Sulaiman Wilms wrote that, like all citizens, these voters were interested in issues surrounding pensions, climate protection and education — parties’ positions on these were well-covered. “However, a...

The German election has two faces. Most observers consider the race at the top over, with conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel running around 15 percent ahead of her Social Democratic (SPD) rival Martin Schulz. Yet skepticism remains about the accuracy of pre-election opinion surveys. After all, the overwhelming majority of pollsters failed to predict victories for the pro-Brexit camp in the UK and Donald Trump in the US. The methodologies used by German pollsters range from the telephone interviews employed by established organizations like Infratest dimap and Forsa, which have standing contracts with major news outlets, and online surveys used by...

The Social Democrats (SPD) are set to push for equal marriage rights for same-sex couples at a meeting on Wednesday with their coalition partners, Merkel’s conservative Union parties (CDU/CSU) — who have long opposed such legislation — according to a report on Tuesday by Funke Mediengruppe. SPD representatives in the Bundestag (German parliament) plan to propose a reform for the Bundesrepublik, which is one of the few west European countries that does not allow same-sex marriage. “In the future, marriage should be possible as well for same-sex couples,” the SPD promised in their proposal. “I hope that the CDU and...

Social Democrats want to put marriage equality on the table, and over 80 percent of Germans support expanding the right to marry to same-sex couples. But many Christian Democrats are still pushing back. Marriage equality is legal in 22 countries, including Argentina, South Africa and the United States. Germany is not one of them. But now members of the junior governing Social Democratic Party (SPD) are pushing to change that. They are calling on their coalition partners, the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU), to go along with a change of law that would grant same-sex couples...

BERLIN — German Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt’s political future is tied to the success of imposing a toll on foreign drivers using the country’s autobahns, and despite being slapped down by the European Commission he isn’t giving up on the idea.“The tolls are coming,” Dobrindt told the Bild newspaper on Friday, following news that the EU and Germany are about to settle their dispute over introducing the payments. “I am confident that we will be able to close negotiations with the EU Commission on a positive note in November.”Dobrindt told reporters he expected tolls to come into effect after national...

Berliners have reacted with disbelief after the mayor’s head spokeswoman was placed on a temporary retirement plan of €6,385 per month — and at the ripe old age of 37. […] City officials said on Tuesday that Berlin mayor Michael Müller’s former head spokeswoman Daniela Augenstein had been placed on temporary retirement, just two days after the Berlin election. Because she held a position as state secretary, Augenstein is entitled to be paid her full salary for the next three months, which the Berlin interior department told Spiegel Online would be “around €8,906” per month. …

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier believes Donald Trump becoming US president would be a “frightening” prospect for the world, his spokeswoman said Wednesday. Steinmeier “is not neutral” on whether the Republican candidate is fit to occupy the Oval Office, the spokeswoman, Sawsan Chebli, told reporters. “He is of the opinion that it is frightening, if you follow Trump’s remarks, what could become of this world if Trump actually became president,” she said. …

German politicians and media organizations from across the political spectrum have been scathing about Nigel Farage after he announced his resignation as leader of UKIP, Britain’s anti-EU political party. Farage announced on Monday that he was stepping down as leader of UKIP, saying he wanted his life back. But critics have accused him of irresponsibility, as the decision means he will disappear from the political limelight with the UK’s exit from the EU, which he has long sought, looking set to become reality. “First they lied and stirred up anger, then they created chaos and now they’ve run away. Nigel...

Berlin (AFP) - Nearly 40 percent of German voters think Chancellor Angela Merkel should quit over her liberal asylum policy after almost 1.1 million newcomers arrived last year, a poll showed Friday. As the mood in Germany has shifted from a euphoric welcome for people fleeing war and persecution last September to growing doubts about the country's ability to accommodate and integrate the record influx, the popular Merkel has come under increasing pressure. However, the poll for Focus news magazine conducted by the independent opinion research institute Insa among 2,047 German citizens showed that a larger share -- nearly 45...

If you ask around about Jim Messina in Washington, you will get an extremely wide range of reactions. Some believe he is brilliant; others think he’s ruthless. But there is one impression that everyone seems to share: “Jim is not afraid of anyone.” That isn’t a bad prerequisite for Messina’s next job. The 45-year-old Democrat, who organized Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign and this year orchestrated British Prime Minister David Cameron’s spectacular, nail-biting win, is now getting into German politics. Messina has agreed to a consulting job in Berlin: He wants to help the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) beat...

German Social Democratic Party (SPD) MEP Jo Leinen told The Local on Monday he was unhappy with comments from European Parliament (EP) President Martin Schulz, who suggested that Britain should be allowed to opt out of the call to work towards “ever closer union” among EU countries. “The only country that has opted out of European integration with special rules in the past decades has been Great Britain,” Schulz told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. “We would only be recognizing what has been true for London for a long time.” But Social Democratic MEP Jo Leinen told The Local that Schulz’s...

Vegetable farmers in Brandenburg are worried about the future of the famous Spreewald gherkins, as the new national minimum wage has driven prices up.Spreewald gherkins aren’t just any old gherkins. They hold a certain status in Germany, to the extent that they are designated by the EU as a Protected Geographical Indication, designed to protect local specialties. And yet the greatest threat to their survival isn’t coming from international competitors, but from German politicians. Producers say that the national minimum wage introduced by the Social Democratic Party (SPD) as part of the coalition agreement is forcing prices up. “More than...

The new family minister has called for the introduction of a 32-hour working week for parents of young children, stating her plan would be funded by taxpayers. Manuela Schwesig said on Friday that mothers and fathers with children under the age of three should not work the current 40-hour week. […] But according to the Berlin-based German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), the plan from the center-left SPD would cost taxpayers €140 million ($191 million) a year. …

More than 65,000 parents and teachers in southern Germany have signed an online petition against plans to teach children about homosexuality in school. The petition, which by Thursday had collected over 65,700 signatures, wants to lobby parliament to sink plans in the state of Baden-Württemberg to make teachers talk to pupils more frankly about homosexuality. The initiative, by Baden-Württemberg’s ruling regional Green/SPD coalition, wants to include the aim “acceptance of sexual diversity” in the curriculum so that children are told about different lifestyles and relationships at a young age. But it has met strong resistance from teachers and parents. …

Voters in Germany's most populous state handed a resounding victory to the centre-lefton Sunday, dealing a heavy blow to Angela Merkel's conservatives in what was interpreted as a backlash against the chancellor's European austerity campaign. Exit polls on Sunday night in the North Rhine-Westphalia election showed Hannelore Kraft, who had led the state's centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) in a coalition with the Greens, had soundly beaten her Christian Democrat (CDU) rival Norbert Röttgen, Merkel's environment minister. The SPD secured 39% of the vote to the CDU's 26% in what amounted to the worst result in the state for the conservatives...

SPD releases surveillance images of firebomb suspectPosted: 1:42 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 7, 2012 **SNIP** The face of the suspect cannot be seen but police are hoping someone will recognize the suspect from what the person is wearing. Police described the suspect wearing a blue-hooded jacket with a grey-hooded sweatshirt, a baseball cap, a black mask covering the face below the eyes, blue jeans, dark shoes and black gloves. A white logo was on the black bag the suspect was carrying.