North Rhine-Westphalia

Nearly three weeks after inconclusive state elections in Germany's largest state, North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), the country's two main parties met on Thursday for a first round of talks aimed at examining the feasability of a so-called grand coalition.

Incumbent state premier Juergen Ruettgers led a delegation from the center-right Christian Democrats (CDU) in the talks over the possibility of forming a coalition with the opposition Social Democrats (SPD), under leader Hannelore Kraft.

The SPD and their preferred coalition partners the Greens won 46.6 percent of the vote in the May 9 election, more than the CDU and their preferred partners, the liberal Free Democrats (FDP), but not enough to form a majority government.

Kraft had briefly explored the possibility of a three-way coalition with the far-left Left party, but abandoned this course over general differences in party platforms. The SPD then categorically ruled out a coalition deal with the Greens and FDP.

With this in mind, a CDU-SPD grand coalition in North Rhine-Westphalia - which would mirror the former federal government of 2005-09 - looks like being the most feasible path to solving the state stalemate.

"We will conduct discussions [with the CDU] with absolute sincerity," Kraft said over the weekend. "But it remains to be seen if we will ultimately agree on building a coalition government."

Litmus test

Ironically, premier Ruettgers, who has held the post since 2005 in a coalition government with the FDP, could retain his hold on leadership of the state in a CDU-SPD grand coalition. The CDU garnered 0.1 percent more votes than the SPD in the May election, meaning both parties won the same number of seats in the state parliament in Duesseldorf.

But in comments made Thursday to the Rheinische Post newspaper, SPD state general secretary Andrea Nahles said the Social Democrats would be pushing their claim for leadership of the state.

She said the SPD sought political change in North Rhine-Westphalia, and that, according to the party's political goals, Ruettgers could not remain premier.

"We are staking a claim to the office of the premier," she said.

North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of 18 million, is by far Germany's largest state. Elections there are commonly seen as a litmus test for the policies of the federal government.

It was widely believed that a laggard start to government in 2009 by the CDU-FDP coalition at the federal level, under Chancellor Angela Merkel, would reflect negatively on the CDU in the NRW election - which ended in the Christian Democrats losing 22 seats in the state parliament.

The result of the state election also weighs heavily on the ability of the Merkel government to enact its agenda. If the SPD were able to form a government without the Christian Democrats, this would tip the balance of power in Germany's upper house, the Bundesrat, away from the CDU, seriously hindering Merkel's legislative plans.

dfm/dpa/AP/Reuters

Editor: Rob Turner