BERLIN: German Social Democrat (SPD) leader Martin Schulz said on Friday that his party broadly agreed it should not rule out any options for a new government and stressed that another conservative tie-up was not a foregone conclusion.
Schulz was speaking after attending a meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel and her Bavarian ally Horst Seehofer with President Frank-Walter Steinmeier late on Thursday that aimed to end political deadlock in Europe's largest economy.
"What I can tell you is that we discussed the situation at the SPD party board meeting intensively ... Regarding the formation of a new government, there was broad support for not ruling any option out," Schulz said at the SPD headquarters in Berlin.
He denied he had agreed to a re-run of the conservative alliance that has ruled Germany for the last four years and added that forming another such coalition was "not automatic".