High-level talks between leaders of Germany’s centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) and the winners of the recent elections, the centre-right CDU/CSU bloc, continued in Berlin on Wednesday.
Outgoing German Chancellor Olaf Scholz of the SPD met for an hour and a half with CDU chairman Friedrich Merz, widely expected to replace him as chancellor.
Alexander Dobrindt, a top politician in the CDU’s Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), also participated, alongside SPD co-chairs Lars Klingbeil and Saskia Esken.
According to Scholz’s government spokesman, Steffen Hebestreit, the discussions were aimed at coordinating views ahead of Thursday’s emergency EU summit in Brussels on Europe’s security situation.
On Tuesday evening, the CDU, CSU, and SPD reached a major tentative budget deal to invest 500 billion euros (535 billion dollars) in infrastructure and largely exempt increased defence spending from Germany’s strict balanced budget rules.(dpa/NAN)
