These are the key players in the tricky talks facing Angela Merkel
Berlin — Angela Merkel’s election victory on Sunday sets the stage for talks on who will join her fourth-term government. With the defeated Social Democrats ruling themselves out, her Christian Democratic-led bloc is expected to explore a three-way coalition including the Free Democrats and Greens. Here’s a look at the likely key players in the weeks ahead. Merkel once dubbed "the queen of the backrooms" by Der Spiegel, holds the cards despite her party’s election losses. Battle-hardened from governing with two different partners over the past 12 years, the chancellor says she enjoys banging heads together to get deals. Germany’s consensual politics (and the arrival of a populist party that wants to tear it down) plays to the former physicist’s strengths: she tends to solve problems step by step, does not shy away from experiments and sometimes surprises those who underestimate her with radical solutions. Wolfgang Schaeuble The 75-year-old Schaeuble has more negotiating experience t...
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