SPD 'has no plan' if members reject Merkel coalition deal

The future leader of Germany's Social Democrats (SPD) has said the party has “no plan B” if members reject a coalition deal with Angela Merkel’s conservatives this week.

“I am convinced we will get a majority,” Andrea Nahles, who was endorsed last week to take over the SPD, told Der Spiegel magazine in comments published on Sunday. “I don’t have a Plan B.”

The SPD’s 464,000 members will begin to vote on Tuesday on whether the center-left party should form a coalition government with Mrs Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and her Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU).

Party leaders reached a deal last week to renew a 'grand coalition', four months after Germany’s federal election last September. Now SPD party members must decide whether to accept the deal by March 4.

The comments come as a poll shows that support for the SPD, Germany’s second largest party, has reached an all time low. The survey, conducted by Infratest dimap, which surveyed 1,001 people, showed that support for the party fell to just 16 per cent, only one percentage point ahead of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, between 13-15 of February.

The SPD has been in crisis since Martin Schulz stepped down as party leader after a deal was reached, claiming to have lost confidence in the party.

Ms Nahles, a 47-year-old former employment minister, is now set to become the first woman to lead the party. But there has been discontent over the succession process, and bitter divisions over whether to form a coalition government with Mrs Merkel remain.

“The past days were very difficult, that is true, and that is reflected in such numbers,” Ms Nahles said in comments published Sunday. “But I am very hopeful we can now start moving forward,” she said.

Mrs Merkel‘s conservative bloc scored highest of all parties, with 33 percent in the Infratest poll. Mrs Merkel insisted last weekend that the “painful” compromises she was forced to make in order to reach a coalition agreement have not undermined her authority.

In an interview with ZDF, Germany’s public broadcaster, last Sunday, Mrs Merkel refuted suggestions that she would soon give up party chairmanship. “I ran for a four-year term,” she said. “I promised those four years and I’m someone who keeps their promises.”