Germany’s Greens propose 3-way coalition with SPD, liberals

BERLIN (AA) – Germany’s Green party wants to begin talks with the Social Democrats (SPD) and the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) to form a three-way coalition government, the party’s co-chairwoman Annalena Baerbock announced on Wednesday.

“After our internal discussions we made a decision. It would be reasonable now to have much deeper talks with the SPD and the FDP. We propose this to the FDP to move to three-way coalition talks,” she told a news conference in Berlin.

Her remarks came after the country’s major political parties concluded bilateral talks to discuss coalition options after the Sept. 26 parliamentary polls.

The FDP was scheduled to hold an internal debate later on Wednesday to decide its next move in the coalition talks.

The Social Democrats narrowly defeated the Christian Democrats in the elections but fell short of a majority in the parliament, with results showing that Germany may face months of negotiations between parties to form a government.

Despite coming in fourth, the FDP has emerged as a kingmaker and major coalition scenarios now depend on the party’s decision.