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Friedrich Merz's party approves German coalition agreement, bringing him closer to chancellery
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....riedrich Merz's party approves German coalition agreement, bringing him closer to chancellery<BR>PTI News<BR>Dated:- 28-4-2025<BR>PTI<BR>Berlin, Apr 28 (AP) German election winner Friedrich Merz's party on Monday approved an agreement to form a coalition government with a centre-left rival, bringing him closer to the helm of a leading European power as it grapples with a stagnant economy, the Trum....
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....p administration's trade policy and the war in Ukraine. Delegates at a convention of Merz's centre-right Christian Democratic Union party approved the agreement that was reached earlier this month. German news agency dpa reported that the exact vote count was not released Monday. The would-be coalition aims to spur economic growth, ramp up defence spending, take a tougher approach to migration a....
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....nd catch up on long-neglected modernisation for the 27-nation European Union's most populous member. The deal still has a bigger hurdle to clear before parliament can meet to elect Merz. The junior partners in the prospective coalition, the centre-left Social Democrats of outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz, put the agreement to the ballot of their entire 358,000-plus membership. The results are expe....
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....cted on Wednesday. There is some resistance in the Social Democrats' ranks after the party finished third in Germany's election in February with its worst postwar result in a national parliamentary election. The party's youth wing has come out against the deal. The CDU is the dominant party in a two-party conservative bloc known as the Union. Its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union....
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...., already approved the deal. If the Social Democrats' members approve the deal, the lower house of the German parliament will meet May 6 to elect Merz as chancellor. In that vote, Merz will need a majority of all members of the house to be elected as post-World War II Germany's 10th chancellor, succeeding Scholz. The proposed coalition has a relatively modest majority, with 328 of the Bundestag'....
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....s 630 seats. Merz's party also on Monday announced its proposed government team, including senior lawmaker Johann Wadephul as foreign minister — a position the CDU last held in the 1960s. (AP) GSP<BR> News - Press release - PIB....