German Social Democrat leader Martin Schulz is under increasing pressure to accept an alliance with Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats and a new "grand coalition" in order to get Germany out of the political crisis, German media reported today. After the defeat in the elections on September 24, Schultz repeated several times that he has no intention of renewing the coalition with the conservatives and that he wants to reconstruct the party in the opposition. However, after the failure of negotiations between Merkel's CDU, the Greens and the Liberals on the formation of a government and the possibility of new elections, Schulz's refusal became more controversial, France Press reported. "Sulc's refusal to participate in the government is the seed of trouble for the SPD," writes the newspaper Zidojce Zeitung. In the event of new elections, some officials believe they could be punished for prolonging the political crisis. Schultz, however, claims that the failure of the SPD and the mediocre result of the CDU showed that Germans do not want a new "grand coalition". The newspaper Bild writes that "resistance to Martin Schulz in the SPD is increasing" and that 30 MPs are asking questions about their leader's strategy. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a social democrat who wants to avoid new elections at all costs, will receive Schulz tomorrow and try to convince him to negotiate with Merkel. "We are in a new situation. You can't tell the president 'it's a done deal,'" Johannes Kars, leader of the right wing of the SPD, told the Passauer noye presse newspaper. Steinmeier is talking to all parties that can participate in the coalition under the leadership of Merkel, who has been in power for 12 years. Claudia Roth, a Greens official, also encouraged the head of state to "make the SPD change its mind".
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