With just over a week left on Angela Merkel’s CSU ultimatum to resolve the German “refugee” problem in a manner that is satisfactory to her populist coalition partner Horst Seehofer (and who famously said recently that he “can’t work with that woman anymore“) and that sees an EU agreement that sends migrants back to their originating European nations, something which in light of recent Italian populist developments is impossible and effectively guarantees that Merkel will be unsuccessful, on Friday morning Der Spiegel reported that the next step for Chancellor Merkel now seems inevitable, and that Germany’s SPD party is preparing for new elections, one assumes on the belief that the Merkel coalition government will collapse.
Horst Seehofer and Angela Merkel. Photo: DPA
Specifically, Der Spiegel reported that Party Secretary General Lars Klingbeil held three internal meetings to prepare for possible new elections, which all happened late last week and early this week.
Topics covered included possible dates for new elections, which SPD strategists see in early September at the earliest.
According to the report, Klingbeil also ordered seeking out venues for special party summit, and that the SPD, which has seen a plunge in the polls in recent months, will contract a new PR agency regardless of whether new elections take place.
As expected, news that Germany may have new elections soon send the Euro – which until this moment had seen a sharp short squeeze – sliding. There has been no comment so far from either Merkel or the CDU/CSU.
