BERLIN - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday that there had been "a first contact" between her party and the Social Democrats (SPD) leadership on possible coalition negotiations but did not rule out talks with the Greens.
"We have a clear mandate to form the new government. Germany needs a stable government. We will fulfill this mission," said Merkel at a news conference in the afternoon.
"We are, of course, open for talks and I have already had initial contact with SPD chairman, who said the SPD must first hold a meeting of its leaders on Friday," she said, adding that she did not exclude talks with the Greens, the other possible partner.
Merkel also stressed that she saw no reason to change the Europe policy of her government.
Merkel's CDU and its Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU) proved to be the biggest winner with 41.5 percent of votes in the federal election, the official provisional result showed.
It showed that the largest opposition party the center-left SPD took 25.7 percent of votes. The Green party, the SPD's favored ally, captured 8.4 percent. The Left Party got 8.6 percent of votes.
After the election defeat, the Green party's co-chair Claudia Roth told a press conference on Monday that the entire leadership would quit at the next party congress by the end of October to make room for renewal. They include co-chairpersons Claudia Roth and Cem Oezdemir and the party council with the leading candidates Jurgen Trittin and Katrin Goering-Eckardt.
Oezdemir said in a German television interview that the difference with Merkel's CDU is "of course enormous in fields like energy policy, social policy and economic policy, but we will talk and see."
Without a majority of the parliament seats, CDU/CSU union has to find a partner to form a coalition in order to rule the Europe's largest economy for the next four years. A grand coalition with the center-left SPD as in Merkel's 2005-2009 first term seemed probable. Up to weeks of horse trading is expected for forming such a grand coalition.
Merkel's current junior coalition partner the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) party failed to retain seats in the parliament with a disappointing result of 4.8 percent, falling short of the 5-percent minimum support to enter into the parliament, official provisional result showed.
Its party leader Philipp Roesler, who served as economy minister and deputy chancellor in the coalition government, offered to step down from the party post on Monday. (Xinhua)