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The new German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Finance Minister Olaf Scholz hold their first meeting Saturday as Germans consider the implications of her decision to step down after more than 11 years in office.
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Having stepped down as Chancellor, Merkel and her leftist critics in her conservative Christian Democratic Union Party now must decide if it is worth putting aside the past and work together to form a new government. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has begun a form of ‘horse trading’ after the parties agreed that Merkel will stay on as leader of the center-right bloc until the coalition talks end, just over four months after the September elections.
Even if they can broker a coalition, the new government will carry significant limitations with regards to immigration and trade policy. At the Center for European Reform (CER), Richard Gowan discusses the constraints Merkel may face in forming a new government.
This interview was originally taped on Fox News Radio.
More on the challenges facing Merkel and her new coalition.