BERLIN, October 15. / TASS /. The Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), the Alliance 90/The Greens and the Free Democratic Party (FDP) have agreed to proceed from preliminary talks to coalition negotiations over establishing a new government in Germany, according to the statement published on Friday following the political leaders’ meeting.
"We are convinced that an ambitious and reliable coalition agreement can be reached," the statement reads.
The sides carry preliminary negotiations to understand their willingness to compromise if they form the new government. After that, the actual coalition talks kick off, so the parties will be hammering out the programs to form the basis of the future coalition agreement and distribute the ministerial posts. In fact, the shift to coalition negotiations indicates that the SPD, the Greens and the FDP have eliminated the main differences and are going to establish the Cabinet.
According to Germany’s Central Election Commission (CEC), the SPD won the September 26 elections to the Bundestag, receiving 25.7% of the ballot. The German conservatives took second with 24.1%, which is their worst ever result. The Bundestag of the 20th convocation also includes the Greens, who took third place with 14.8% of the votes, the FDP with 11.5%, the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) with 10.3%, while the Left gathered 4.9%.