High Time to Form a "New Grand Coalition" Government in Germany

Amid the expressed isolationist policy and world-upsetting rantings of United States (US) President Donald Trump, the global community has been missing a sound German input ever since an inclusive election, last September, prevented Chancellor Angela Merkel from forming a new government and to assuming her position as a global leader as she has clearly demonstrated in recent years.

Although Merkel's party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its sister party in Bavaria, the Christian Social Union (CSU), won the most positions, 246, in the 709-seat Bundestag (German Parliament), they failed to gain a majority. Martin Schulz's Social Democratic Party (SPD) - Merkel's coalition partner in the previous government, won 153 seats, the far right party, Alternative for Germany (AfG) won 94 seats, the Free Democratic Party (FDP) won 80 and the Greens won 67 seats.

Coalition talks between the CDU/CSU, the FDP and the Greens failed to form a new government, but the SPD, which had ruled out forming another government with Merkel, had a change of heart. And on Sunday, the SPD met and voted to enter coalition negotiations with the CDU/CSU after they both agreed on a blueprint for formal talks earlier this month, the BBC-News reported.

Chancellor Merkel's leadership in Germany has been rational and steady but wrought by an unprecedented immigration crisis in 2015 that witnessed more than 600,000 asylum seekers entering Germany after fleeing wars in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. 

As Merkel offered German humanitarian kindness to hundreds of thousands of refugees, far right parties within Germany, egged on by other anti-immigration folks in Europe, like Viktor Orban, of Hungary, criticized the responsibility Europe was obliged to show the displaced people. Thus, Merkel's CDU/CSU lost 65 seats in the September vote and the SPD lost 40 seats, while the far right AfG gained 94 seats.

However, the nation destabilizing 600,000 asylum seekers who entered Germany in 2015, decreased to 280,000 in 2016. The CDU/CSU-SPD likely coalition has agreed to limit asylum seekers to 200,000 annually and to possibly cap at 1,000-a-month the number of migrants allowed to join relatives living in Germany.

Both Merkel and Schulz after Sunday's agreement expressed optimism to a new "Grand Coalition" and of a "fresh start" for Germany as they stressed the need to ensure the nation's "social cohesion" amid tensions brought on by the 2015 immigration crisis. 

Therefore, a new government will form in Germany soon that offers the potential to returning Angela Merkel to the post of providing rational woman world leadership.