Future of Merkel's govt in hands of crisis-hit SPD

Germany's Social Democrats could end up deciding if the country faces snap elections, the leader of Angela Merkel's party said Monday, after her junior coalition partner sank into chaos over the resignation of its leader.

In a surprise announcement that rattled Berlin, Social Democratic Party (SPD) leader Andrea Nahles said Sunday she was quitting her party's top jobs following an European election drubbing late last month.

Merkel and other heavyweights in her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) have sought to calm nerves, saying they stood by the coalition.

But CDU chief Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer conceded Monday that whether Germany goes to the polls before the end of the electoral term in 2021 would depend on the SPD's next move.

"We are ready to keep this coalition going. How the SPD behaves is its decision," she told journalists following crisis talks within her centre-right party.

"There are good reasons to not end a government lightly, from the view of the situation in Germany but also the situation in Europe," she said.

Given the international challenges, it would be "anything but productive if Germany were to go into a government crisis or a lengthy election campaign".

The question of snap elections did not come up during Monday's huddle in Berlin, she said, but added that "you can be certain that the CDU is prepared for whatever comes or does not come".

The leadership crisis at the SPD could not have come at a worse time for the CDU, which was itself struggling to halt a haemorrhage of voters as the younger generation shuns it in droves for the Greens.

The SPD meanwhile has been scrambling to find a new leader to replace Nahles, 48.

But voices are growing louder within both the SPD and the CDU for the parties to part ways.

Harald Christ of the SPD's business leaders forum said "Nahles stands for the existence of the GroKo -- whose stability is now in question."
The deputy leader of the CDU-CSU parliamentary group, Carsten Linnemann, also warned in an interview with RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland newspaper group that "if we are unable to progress with the SPD, then we should draw a line under this and ask ourselves if continuing with the GroKo still makes sense."