01.12.2019 - 14:33 [ Bloomberg ]

Merkel’s Coalition Shaken to Core By Partner’s Choice of Leader

SPD members chose a pair of government critics, 67-year-old Norbert Walter-Borjans and lawmaker Saskia Esken, 58, to lead their party instead of a pro-Merkel ticket led by her finance minister, Olaf Scholz. The result may signal the party’s willingness to pull out of Germany’s grand coalition after years of paying the political costs for keeping the chancellor in office.