German SPD to start talks with Merkel next week if members agree

The leader of Germany's Social Democrats (SPD) said on Monday he would launch talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives on forming a government next week if members of his centre-left party gave him the green light at a congress this weekend. The remarks by Martin Schulz raised hopes that the two parties that suffered losses to the far right in an election in September could renew an alliance that has ruled Germany since 2013 and end the political deadlock in Europe's largest economy. Merkel turned to the SPD after failing to form a three-way alliance with the left-leaning Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats, plunging Germany into a political impasse and raising doubt about her future after 12 years in power. "We'll explore whether and how the formation of a government is possible in Germany," Schulz told journalists. The SPD party board leadership had earlier set down its key demands for coalition talks with the conservatives. On the divisive issue of immigration, one of the main reasons for the collapse of Merkel's first effort, the SPD said it opposed a conservative plan to extend a ban on the right to family reunions for some asylum seekers. "Family reunions...