German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday her conservatives would sound out coalition possibilities with the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) and the Greens as well as with the so far reluctant centre-left Social Democrats (SPD).
“I think all parties … have a responsibility to ensure that there will be a stable government,” Merkel told reporters after her conservative CDU/CSU bloc won Sunday’s election albeit with its weakest result since 1949.
Merkel added that sustainable budget policies and domestic security would be priorities for her conservatives in the upcoming coalition talks.