Going Dutch: Look out, German coalition talks could be long

As Europe's economic powerhouse Germany embarks on the task of piecing together a new ruling coalition after Sunday's knife-edge election, observers need only look to its neighbours, Belgium a

As Europe's economic powerhouse Germany embarks on the task of piecing together a new ruling coalition after Sunday's knife-edge election, observers need only look to its neighbours, Belgium and the Netherlands, to see how tricky the process can be.

Olaf Scholz, leader of the centre-left Social Democrats that narrowly beat outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s centre-right Union bloc on Sunday sounded upbeat the morning after the vote.

“My idea is that we will be very fast in getting a result for this government, and it should be before Christmas if possible,” Mr. Scholz told reporters in Berlin. “Germany always has coalition governments and it was always stable.”