Peter Altmaier, chancellor Angela Merkel's right-hand man in the CDU party, has appealed on German TV for the centre-left SPD party to reconsider its refusal to join a new grand coalition. "We must give the SPD a chance to think", he told the ZDF broadcaster on Tuesday. He said parties would talk for another three weeks to avoid fresh elections, adding that the coalition fiasco risked harming Germany's stable image.
