this is g.w. news live from berlin a breakthrough months in the making germany's one big step closer to getting a new government so we have the scenes now outside the headquarters of uncle america's party right here her conservatives and the social democrats are set to announce that they have reached an agreement to form a new grand coalition after marathon all night talks. i have seen the service going to thank you for joining us we have breaking news

here at this hour in berlin it's now been confirmed that germany's two biggest political groups have reached an agreement on forming a coalition government now outside the city you had quarters at chancellor angela merkel's party her conservatives and the social democrats under martin schultz are set to announce plans for a new grand coalition any minute now you see these pictures live this follows days of negotiations in which the two were deadlocked over issues like health care reform now today's agreement still faces a vote by nearly half a million social democrat party members. and our political correspondent hans has been standing out in the cold all morning waiting and watching this story for us hi hans what details do you have for us on this agreement. well it seems clear it's clear now that an agreement has in fact been reached just a few minutes ago the former general secretary of the social democrats entered this building just behind me and spoke to the press briefly he confirmed basically that

the social democrats have been given the finance ministry the foreign ministry and the ministry of labor these are clearly three very crucial ministries for the social democrats and mean that they have driven a hard bargain in this discussion with the conservatives until now the finance ministry was controlled by the conservatives they have given that up to give it to the social democrats also the foreign ministry obviously is important and for the social democrats controlling labor is crucial for their membership crucial for their policies crucial for the questions that they have been trying to push for during these negotiations on the conservative side one of two conservative politicians also enter the bowling recently for further discussions for finalizing the final documents that are going to be released here soon and there have been saying that's difficult concepts sions painful disco concessions as i call them

have to be made through the console through the social democrats in order to ensure that germany will have a new government and a functioning government so it seems that this agreement does has been reached and that the social democrats indeed have managed to push through things that they have that have been important to their agenda and are important to their membership which clearly still has a say in the whole matter and sister remind our viewers why it was important for the chancellor and her conservatives to make such concessions essentially they needed especially democrats and work with them to avoid possibly new elections. well it has to be said that this was not the preferred coalition the preferred government or form of government a coalition government for the conservatives there was an attempt to form a different coalition after the elections at the end of september with different parties and that failed as a result of both the conservatives and the social democrats were in

a sense forced by circumstances to form this coalition so in order to get a government in order for anglo-american to remain chancellor and in order to avoid fresh elections it was necessary for these two parties to find common ground and to agree on certain key points this was especially so for the social democrats who've been particularly reluctant to re enter a grand coalition a real addition of the government that we've had for the first past four years which the social democrats felt has not been well that has not done the party much good has in fact been damaging to the social democratic party so in fact the consul just had to give some concessions had to give some carrots as it were some rewards to the social democrats for them to persuade them to act enter another grand coalition and as you said hans it appears they they drove a hard bargain and were able to secure some of those top ministry spots what

exactly do you think that means for looking ahead to whether s.p.d. members which they will have to vote on this deal do you think that this is a good deal. well that's a crucial next hurdle that almost half a million members of the social democratic party can vote on whether or not they accept this agreement and the way that it has been put together today and i think in order to sell this agreement to the membership of the social democratic party martin sure to steer the s.p.d. leader and the other leaders of the party will need to offer all these concessions that have been made to them during these negotiations they will say look to their membership they will say look we have these major. ministries in our hands and in the coalition agreement they are major points on social issue on issues such as health care on issues such as. labor law and so on that the social democrats have put into this agreement and that will be their selling point in order to try and

persuade their membership actually to accept this contract and this new government . there have been a long nights wrangling over these details it's been more than four months since the election i can imagine i would venture a guess to say there's probably a sense of relief there as well that an agreement appears have been reached absolutely there is a sense of relief that is there are smiles on them on many faces of the politicians that are here even though many of them have spent the night in this building and have been spending the night negotiating some of them just left this morning to go and have a show and maybe to change their shirts and so on now they're for returned again to you know to to finish off the final points to put together the final document to distributed to through their members and other leading politicians and then eventually to the public and to us a sense of relief on your face as well hands will give you a break and come back to you in a little bit our hands friends outside of the conservative party headquarters here

in berlin thank you. as times mentioned there are the two sides have one big more hurdle before the deal is sealed any agreement for another grand coalition must receive the blessing of the rank and file members of the center left as such germany must wait a bit longer for an end to months of political limbo until the party vote and that could take weeks. fate is in that. the four hundred sixty thousand members could block another grand coalition between conservatives and the social democrats but who are these people. are women than men. of. a male. less than ten percent of s.p.d. members around. the number lies with those above sixty. degree

even more people with higher education can be found in the pro-business f.t.p. . the green party sixty eight percent of members with degrees. when the members vote on the grand coalition civil servants will have the most powerful voice because they represent almost half the party membership only every six member of the historically working class party is a blue color. of all members a protestant. has no religious affiliation. as catholic. but they all have one thing in common they will decide whether or not could remain chancellor in a grand coalition. all right so a lot still at stake as we're hearing the political editor here with us. that

being said it looks as hans was just saying a little while ago that the social democrats have managed to get some important concessions so as they take the steel forward to their party members it could be one that perhaps they can say look we have achieved tell us a little bit more about what we have heard so far about this agreement again not confirmed exactly who will be taking which ministry but it looks like the social democrats will have the. top ministers of finance foreign and labor so this point of course to me i think it's clear to everybody that we're speculating but there are certain reports that are coming out we have to i would like to take a step back and look at september's elections when martin shows the head of the s.p.d. said i will not enter a cabinet with america as chancellor and we now have a situation where media reporting that he is likely the head of the social democrats is likely to become germany's new foreign minister if the s.p.d. party agrees to that deal and of course that would be a major step but that is something that he will have to sell to his party base how

come you have done such a turnaround in your promises but of course the position of foreign minister is one traditionally the most popular ministry even seek my gabriele man it's also an s.p.d. man managed to get out of really low support points and when he became foreign minister. ranking really highly so maybe that is one of the hopes that martin charles has that he will he can win some of his popularity back and he said that it would probably mean that he would have to give up the leadership of the party this is what some people are saying at the moment because it is just not going to happen the s.p.d. cannot really knew itself to the necessary extent if you have a government if you have the foreign minister who's the head of the party and what about those other posts i mean the finance minister we're talking about who is in control of the purse strings essentially that would be the social democrats and

that appears to be according to reports the former mayor of olaf shoals again it's an extremely important ministry and actually. america would have really made those concessions to give the s.p.d. these three massively important ministries just tells us how desperate she was to get. deal together or laugh shouts from the s.p.d. is somebody that germany watches could be familiar with he was a minister in a cabinet with ungrammatical he is currently the mayor of hamburg he has been a member or he was a member of the bundestag for several years since ninety eight and he is critical of martin shows so that would be interesting to watch whether or not these dealings when it comes to finance policies would actually change with all our shorts in this position they would have changed probably with martin shows as finance minister or

with all our shows he's more understanding of that and the other one we said was the labor ministry also important for the sort of the democrats traditionally the party of the unions and you know what was the alternative here for saying that chance americal had to make some very painful concessions we heard him say that time and again over the course of the morning what was the alternative that she had here well some people are already defending this deal saying we all know that it's not our first of it's not the desired solution but it was something where we had to also risk a sense of responsibility specially after the other parties didn't manage to strike a deal with until america last year that was going to be a completely new government made up of the conservative party from uncle americal and the pro-business f.t.p. and the green party that collapsed of course and then the s.p.d. had to convince its members to say alright we have to now show

a sense of responsibility and at least and to talks and then you get to decide on it the problem of course being that everybody's well aware that if we didn't have a deal between the conservatives and the s.p.d. the alternative would have been fresh elections yesterday currently polling so badly so poorly they have lost a lot of voters support they. we know that they're likely to even lose more in fresh elections that was what about the tough decision and what about chancellor merkel because she comes out of this as you've said as well we can does she have the political capital to push forward the reforms that she has planned. i think you have to really look at her role in germany and her role abroad i think when you look at this potential new government if the s.p.d. party members agree that this is a deal that they can live for us then we will see a stable government approach you government that. the french president is eagerly

waiting for and so we would see a strong ungrammatical on the european stage on the international stage she could help him on the calm push through these e.u. reforms to guarantee that the e.u. continues existing and that it improves and that it wins again some credibility at home though i really do believe that he position is extremely weakened and that people behind the scenes are talking about her succession you know where does that where do things go from here now we have an initial coalition agreement it looks like how much longer until we actually see a new government that entirely depends on the s.p.d. members now there is a process they'll have to send mails letters to their members and all the four hundred sixty thousand s.p.d. members can vote on the deal and everybody has said this can take up to three weeks hopefully by easter well as we've been waiting for some comments from the negotiating parties from the leaders of both political groups we do have a believe

a clip from peter altmire from chancellor merkel's conservative let's listen to what he has had to say. it's a good day for a country there is a good chance that we will soon have a new government. or coalition agreement will benefit many of our fellow citizens. and now we all want to take a shower because the last hours of negotiations were hard. that is have put out later we should also say the minister of the chancery at the moment a close confidant of chancellor merkel that's again that sense of relief we're talking about you know this has been a long time coming oh definitely i mean uncle americal is conservatives lost tremendously in september's elections and they have been struggling to strike a deal almost looked as though nobody wants to go into government with them anymore knowing that machall is somebody who is very capable of changing her policies depending.