Germany: Efforts to forge a coalition government continued to be bogged down - BBH

Analysts at BBH note that German efforts to forge a four-party coalition government continued to be bogged down, as the self-imposed deadline passed.  

Key Quotes

“These are still so-called exploratory talks; the concrete coalition negotiations have not begun.  There are some genuine policy disagreements on immigration, climate change, fiscal policy, internal security, and Europe.    The negotiations are further troubled by the reported leadership challenge within the CSU, the Bavarian sister party to Merkel's CDU.  The talks are set to continue.  The underlying threat is that if the talks fail, new elections would be necessary, and many fear that the AfD would gain more support.”