Germany coalition talks collapse as FDP walks out

Marathon talks on forming a coalition government in Germany have collapsed, plunging the eurozone’s largest economy into a political crisis and casting doubt on Chancellor Angela Merkel’s fourth term.

Germany’s pro-business Free Democrats Party (FDP) unexpectedly called off more than four weeks of coalition talks with Merkel’s conservative CDU/CSU bloc and the left-leaning Greens as they failed to hammer out their differences over a range of issues, particularly immigration policies.

Merkel, who has been in power for 12 years and known as a skilled negotiator, described the failure as a setback on Monday and apologized for the chaos.

We “could have reached an agreement” despite our differences in views, but “couldn’t find any solution today,” she said.

Merkel was forced to enter the make or break talks with rival factions after her Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Bavarian sister party, Christian Social Union (CSU), lost parliamentary majority despite winning the September elections.