Germany's Social Democrats (SPD) said on Wednesday they had agreed to start talks on a possible coalition with Friedrich Merz's conservatives but stressed their support was not automatic and hit out at his negotiating style.

Germany’s chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz has opened talks with the Social Democrats over ways to quickly ramp up defense spending before they’ve completed a formal coalition deal, according to people familiar with those discussions.

The centre-right party's leader Friedrich Merz said CDU and SPD are to enter talks to form a coalition, one day after the German election on Sunday. View on euronews