"We should not lose sight of the core issues, as I see the alarming developments on the stock market in recent hours. We live in turbulent times, and people expect from us, the popular parties — the CDU/CSU and the SPD — that we form a government that will serve for the benefit of the people and ensures stability," Merkel told reporters before the new round of coalition talks.
European stock markets are facing pressure amid the Asian markets' drop overnight by up to 5 percent following the largest single-day point drop in US history of the Dow Jones Industrial Average stock index, which plummeted on Monday by more than 1,100 points.
Earlier in the day, the leaders of Merkel's alliance of the Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) continued the talks on forming a coalition government, which kicked off on Sunday.
The CDU/CSU alliance's head Angela Merkel initially planned to form a coalition with the Greens and the Free Democratic Party, but preliminary talks with them were unsuccessful. The SPD entered talks with the CDU/CSU after German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier's proposal, although initially, the party ruled out the possibility of forming a coalition with the Merkel-led alliance.
