BERLIN (Sputnik) — Horst Seehofer, the head of the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU), said on Friday that the alliance of the Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the CSU remained the only political force in Germany with the ability to form a government.
"If you follow the debates that sparked off after the Bundestag election, the CDU/CSU remains the only political force in Germany which is able to act and form a government and, moreover, which is making efforts to form a government," Seehofer said at the party's meeting broadcast by the Phoenix channel.
Seehofer, who is also the Bavarian minister-president, expressed hope that the coalition forming process would continue in the weeks to come.
Earlier in the day, Martin Schulz, the head of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), said that exploratory talks with the conservative alliance on the formation of a new German government were expected to start in early January.
"We want to engage in negotiations and believe that they should be launched promptly and be held naturally and thoroughly. The focus should be made on what our country needs," Chancellor Angela Merkel said earlier this week, following a senior party leader meeting in Berlin.
According to Merkel, despite the fact that the CDU/CSU and the SPD have certain differences in their approaches, the two parties also have a considerable convergence of views.
The FDP withdrew from the Jamaica coalition talks with the CDU/CSU alliance and the Greens, with the remaining parties only capable of forming a minority government. The SPD, on the other hand, initially refused to form the so-called Grand Coalition with the conservative bloc.
