"I will not stand for election on April 5, as I cannot guarantee a majority," Ypsilanti told reporters on Friday, March 7, ditching a controversial plan to form a partnership with Germany's newest party in the western state of Hesse.
The move amounted to Ypsilanti going back on a pledge UN appeal for Tajik winter aid ...
German Court Declares Massive Pre-G8 Police Raids Illegal ... not to work with the grouping of ex-communists and leftist Social Democrat deserters from western Germany.
She said she saw "no further options" for her Social Democratic Party (SPD).
Earlier, Dagmar Metzger, a fellow member of the SPD in Hesse's state legislature, had made it clear that she would not back a deal with the Left party.
After a deadlocked state election on Jan. 27, Hesse was left scrambling to form a government. Both the SPD and incumbent Roland Koch's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) won 42 seats each in the 110-seat legislature.
CDU to seek other partners
Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Roland Koch is looking for new friends After getting the okay from SPD national party leader Kurt Beck, Ypsilanti had proposed forming a state government together with the liberal market Free Democratic Party and the far-left Left party. The plan split the German public.
Ypsilanti said earlier in the week that her decision to break with pre-election promises not to partner with the Left party had been "very, very difficult" for her.
Koch had urged the SPD to consider a "grand coalition" together with the CDU, similar to Chancellor Angela Merkel's model at the federal level. He said Friday that his conservative party would seek coalition talks with the FDP and the Greens, which have 11 and nine seats respectively in the state legislature.
The Greens have so far ruled out a coalition with the CDU.
Neither of the two major parties can attain a majority of 56 seats with just one partner, but would need to get either the Left party or the Greens on board as well.
(Deutsche Welle)
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