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Saxony-Anhalt's Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff (CDU, l) and Sven Schulze, Chairman of the CDU Saxony-Anhalt, on the way to the coalition negotiations with the SPD and FDP
Photo: Peter Gercke / dpa
The planned German coalition in Saxony-Anhalt is stalling.
The top representatives of the CDU, SPD and FDP had negotiated their draft for a joint coalition agreement until late at night.
After about eleven hours, the steering group consisting of the party leaders, the incumbent Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff (CDU) and other top representatives of the three parties adjourned to Friday.
"We made very good progress in the coalition negotiations on Wednesday," said CDU boss Sven Schulze after the meeting of the news agency dpa.
"However, there are some details that have to be clarified in a small circle between the parties on Thursday before we can negotiate further."
Dispute over the economic department
After the first two weeks of the coalition negotiations had passed quite silently, the mood between the parties had clouded over on Tuesday and Wednesday - also because a debate had broken out over the future responsibility for the economic department.
Schulze wants to replace the incumbent Minister of Economic Affairs Armin Willingmann (SPD), but the Social Democrats entered negotiations with the demand that Willingmann keep the post.
"The mood was very tense at times this week," said Schulze after the meeting on Wednesday.
"Nevertheless, the talks are still very constructive."
In the state elections on June 6, the SPD achieved the worst result in its history in Saxony-Anhalt with just 8.4 percent of the vote. Some Social Democrats had asked to go into the opposition because of the poor result. They had shown themselves skeptical that the SPD could push through social democratic demands alongside the CDU and FDP.
The formation of a government in Saxony-Anhalt is to be completed by September 16 with the renewed election of Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff (CDU).
Should the negotiations come to a successful end, member surveys would follow at the CDU and SPD.
So far, the CDU has governed Saxony-Anhalt with the Greens and the SPD - the German coalition would be a novelty for the state.
A constellation of CDU, SPD and FDP last existed in Germany in 1959.
mrc / dpa