Posted: Posted October 9, 2021 / 11:41 am CDT / Has been updated: October 9, 2021 / 11:41 am CDT

Berlin (AP) — Greens leaders say the multi-party talks on the formation of a new German government have a “long way” and need to bridge important policy differences.

Social Democrats in the center left, environmentalist Greens, and professional Liberal Democrats in business held their first talks on Thursday about the possibility of a coalition. If they ultimately succeed, the alliance will oppose the block of the centre-right coalition of retiring Prime Minister Angela Merkel after 16 years of leading Europe’s largest economy.

More discussions are scheduled for Monday and Tuesday. However, the process of putting together a new government can take weeks or months in Germany, during which Merkel and her government retain the role of caretaker.

“We still have a long way to go and it will be very difficult,” Robert Habeck, one of the two leaders of Greens, said in an interview broadcast Saturday. “People will find that there are some conflicts between possible coalition partners.”

Havec identified finance as a particularly difficult issue in negotiations, including how to fund investments to combat climate change and an approach to addressing the debt held by European Union countries during the coronavirus pandemic. bottom.

In recent decades, LDP members have mostly formed alliances with the coalition, but the Greens have traditionally leaned to the left. A tripartite alliance with the Social Democratic Party has been successfully attempted at the state level in Germany, but not yet by the national government.

If the negotiations result in a coalition, the Social Democratic Party Olaf Scholz, the deputy prime minister of Merkel’s retired government, will become Germany’s new leader.

The coalition is in turmoil after North Rhine-Westphalia Governor Armin Laschet led the two-party system to the worst election result in history by voting on September 26. After Rachette’s willingness to resign, speculation about who will take over the leadership of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, the ruling party, is in full swing.

Defense Minister Annegret Kramp Karenbauer and Economic Minister Peter Altmaier, Rachette’s predecessor CDU leaders, said they would not win the elected parliamentary seats on Saturday. This will replace two young CDU members in Saarland, Nadine Schoen and Markus Uhl.

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Follow the Associated Press coverage of the German elections at https://apnews.com/hub/germany-election