Exploratory talks to form Germany’s next coalition government collapsed shortly before midnight on Sunday when the pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP) walked out of marathon negotiations. “The four discussion partners have no common vision for modernisation of the country or common basis of trust,” the FDP leader, Christian Lindner, announced after the four parties involved missed several self-prescribed deadlines to resolve differences on migration and energy policy. In the coalition talks in Berlin, the CDU, the CSU and the FDP have, at times, worked to outdo each other on calling for a harder line on migration controls. At the start of the weekend, the FDP leader, Christian Lindner, announced a deadline for the exploratory talks. “The voter has rejected the grand coalition,” Schulz said at a party conference in Nuremberg on Sunday.

Source: The Guardian November 19, 2017 19:10 UTC