German Politics: Afraid of Angela

IT IS unusual after a federal election for a German president to summon the leaders of the main parties to Schloss Bellevue, his seat in Berlin. But this week Joachim Gauck invited first Angela Merkel, the chancellor and leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), and then Sigmar Gabriel, chairman of the opposition Social Democrats (SPD). Along with the CDU’s Bavarian sister party (the CSU), the parties were to begin exploratory talks on October 4th over a possible coalition. But the odds of success are bad enough for Mr Gauck to feel he needs to cajole.The centre-right Union, as the CDU and CSU are jointly called, almost won an absolute majority of seats on September 22nd. But unless Mrs Merkel wants to try a minority government, which post-war Germany has never had, she still has to form a coalition with another party. The centre-left Greens are one option. But they are reeling from a poor result (8.4%) and in the midst of choosing new leaders.A partnership with the SPD has so far seemed far more likely. The party got a disappointing 25.7% of the vote but remains the second-strongest in parliament. In polls, 58% of Germans say they want such a “grand coalition”. But the Social Democrats are still smarting from their previous co-operation with the Union in Mrs Merkel’s first term, for which they paid at the election in 2009 with only 23% of the vote, their worst…

The Economist: Europe