Angela Merkel’s CDU Approves Grand Coalition Deal

As expected, delegates at the CDU party conference in Berlin on Monday approved by a wide margin the grand coalition agreement with the Social Democrats (SPD), with only 27 of the 975 delegates voting against it. Beforehand, Chancellor Angela Merkel urged her fellow party members to support the deal.

Merkel acknowledged that although the conservatives won last September’s national election, their share of the vote declined by around seven percent in what she called the “difficult, unprecedented situation” of a far-right populist party, the Alternative for Germany (AfD), entering to the Bundestag, DW reported.

With many in the rank-and-file unhappy about the concessions Merkel has agreed to make to the SPD, she argued that the deal was the best she could get.

“We’re not going to throw a mandate to govern before the voters’ feet just because we’re disappointed,” Merkel said. “People have always been able to count on the CDU to take responsibility for the country. That’s the CDU brand.”

She also defended her decision to give the SPD control over the powerful finance ministry.

“Should we have allowed the deal to fail just because of this one position?” she asked. “My answer is no.”

Merkel argued that the economy ministry, which the CDU would control, was a worthy replacement, but the applause from delegates was noticeably lukewarm.