Frankfurt Am Main, Jan 14 (AFP) Leading members ofGermany's Social Democrats voiced scepticism today over apreliminary coalition agreement reached with Chancellor AngelaMerkel's conservatives, days after the hard-fought deal washailed as a breakthrough.
Berlin's SPD Mayor Michael Mueller said he was "verycritical" about entering into another government with Merkel'sCDU/CSU bloc after all three parties slumped to their worstresults in decades in last September's election.
"The same coalition with the same policies is not theright answer," the centre-left politician told theTagesspiegel daily, calling for "further talks" to win moreconcessions on key SPD demands.
Party leaders on Friday announced after tortuousnegotiations that they had signed off on a policy blueprintpaving the way for formal coalition discussions to begin aftermonths of paralysis in Europe's top economy.
In the 28-page document, the parties agreed to joinFrance in a push to "strengthen and reform" the eurozone, tolimit the influx of asylum seekers to Germany to around200,000 a year, and to refrain from tax hikes.
But Mueller lamented the SPD's failure to secure a taxhike for the rich or a restructuring of the country's two-tierhealth care system -- two major campaign pledges.
Those concerns were echoed by the SPD's Malu Dreyer,premier of Rhineland-Palatinate state, who also slammed thecompromise to cap immigration.
The migration stance outlined in the roadmap was "verydifficult" for the SPD, she told the German newspaper groupFunke Mediengruppe.
The criticism will make for uncomfortable reading for SPDchief Martin Schulz, who has promised to give party membersthe last word on a third stint as Merkel's junior coalitionpartner.
In a sign of the difficulties ahead, SPD delegates at aregional party conference in Saxony-Anhalt yesterday narrowlyvoted against starting formal coalition talks.
Spiegel news weekly said the non-binding vote was "hugelysymbolic" coming just a day after the in-principle agreement"that Schulz is trying to sell as a success".
The stakes will be higher next Saturday, when 600 partydelegates will be asked to give the green light at a congress,followed by a final vote by more than 400,000 rank-and-filemembers.
The SPD's youth wing chief Kevin Kuehnert has vowed tospend the coming days criss-crossing the country to press hiscase against a new grand coalition, known as "GroKo" in Germanpolitical shorthand.
The SPD initially vowed to go into opposition afterscoring a humiliating 20.5 per cent in the September ballot.
But Schulz faced pressure to reconsider after Merkel'scoalition talks with two smaller parties collapsed inNovember.
Merkel, whose political life is on the line, has welcomedthe coalition blueprint as "a fresh start" but commentatorshave already described a possible repeat of the left-rightalliance as a coalition of "losers". (AFP)KIS.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.