“We Christian Democrats and conservatives are going into these exploratory talks knowing that we’re the strongest force amongst those involved and that we want to negotiate fairly with everyone but I don’t see the Lower Saxony election result as weakening us in this task,” Merkel said during a news conference in Berlin.
Merkel: State defeat has not weakened conservatives before coalition talks
17 October 2017
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday the poor showing of her Christian Democrats (CDU) in a regional poll on Sunday had not weakened her conservative bloc’s position ahead of three-way federal coalition talks due to start later this week.
