BERLIN: With the conservatives still trailing the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) in the German polls with just 10 days to go, left-wing parties are sensing the chance of sharing power in a governing coalition after September 26.
It is likely that a three-way coalition will be the only kind that can command a majority in the Bundestag, which may mean negotiations after the vote take longer.
The state premier of Thuringia, Bodo Ramelow, from the far-left Die Linke, offered himself on Friday as a negotiator if the SPD chooses to explore a three-party coalition with his party and the Greens.
In Thuringia, Ramelow leads a regional government of these same parties within Germany’s federal system.
Die Linke had shown that “they want to govern” at national level, he told dpa.
A leading Green lawmaker in parliament in Berlin, Katrin Goering-Eckardt, was sceptical, however. Die Linke’s foreign and European policy – including calls to dismantle NATO – had ruled them out, she told dpa.
These policies were, Ramelow said, “negotiable.”
Both the SPD candidate for chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and the Greens’ candidate Annalena Baerbock have appeared sceptical of a link-up between their parties and Die Linke.
Scholz is currently about 4 points clear in the polls at 25-26 per cent, ahead of the centre-right candidate Armin Laschet. The Greens, after surging early in the race, have slipped back to third place, with their support hovering around 15-17 per cent.
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