Germany's potential coalition partners to continue talks on Monday
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Bavarian Christian Social Union politician Markus Blume, German State Secretary for Culture and the Media Monika Gruetters and member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) Michael Roth give a statement at the SPD headquarters on Feb 4, 2018 in Berlin.
PHOTO: AFP
BERLIN (REUTERS) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives and the Social Democrats (SPD) will continue negotiations on forming a government on Monday (Feb 5) because they still have differences on some issues, a senior SPD member said.
The conservatives and SPD had set themselves a Sunday (Feb 4) deadline to agree on renewing the "grand coalition" that has governed since 2013, but disputes over healthcare and labour policy remain.
"We had a very constructive day today and we reached a lot of agreements," said SPD General Secretary Lars Klingbeil, adding that negotiators had, however, realised they were still far apart on some issues and they wanted to talk about those in detail.
"So we've decided together that we won't have a night session tonight but rather that we will continue our negotiations and discussions in a detailed and focused way here in Willy Brandt House from 10 o'clock tomorrow," he said, referring to the SPD headquarters.
