Yesterday's meeting between the CDU/CSU and die Gruene ended (predictably) with no progress towards a possible Schwampel coalition involving the Union, die Gruene, and the FDP. There just doesn't seem to be enough common ground in the stated policy goals between the conservative and business-friendly parties and the ecologically oriented Greens.
Meanwhile, dieLinke.PDS party members elected new leaders and have chosen Gregor Gysi and Oscar Lafontaine to serve as co-party chiefs. In a news conference yesterday, Gysi stated that the only way his party would even consider a coalition with the SPD (or anyone else for that matter) would be if their coalition partner repudiated both the Harz IV and Agenda 2010 reform plans, something Schroeder and the SPD are unlikely to do.
Next Wednesday sees a meeting between Merkel and Schroeder to explore the prospects for a schwarz-rot or "grand" coalition between the CDU/CSU and the SPD. But--both Merkel and Schroeder still insist that they and they alone have the mandate to be Chancellor. That meeting is not going to be pretty!
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