Angela Merkel can be generous as she thrashes out coalition deal Pragmatic chancellor knows a political contract with SPD must always leave some room for manoeuvre The two great "people's parties" of postwar Germany will sit down on Wednesday to begin negotiations on a grand coalition of left and right, headed by Angela Merkel, German chancellor. It will not be a pretty sight. For at least a month, most probably more, they will try to thrash out a comprehensive government programme - a coalition contract - as the binding document for policy making for the next four years. It is an extraordinary exercise, part grand theatre, part hard bargaining, that is unimaginable in other democratic countries such as the US or UK, where politics are far more confrontational. In Germany, however, it is almost becoming the new normal. For the second time in eight years Ms Merkel will preside over an exercise in which her centre-right Christian Democratic bloc and the centre-left Social Democrats will cheerfully compromise on their cherished election promises. Even in a country where such wheeling and dealing are the norm, it will not be easy. Ms Merkel won a clear victory in the election on September 22, but now she may have to accept a lot of Social Democrat policies in order to persuade the wider party membership to join her government, without alienating her own party. Part of the problem is that the chancellor is too strong: just five seats short of an absolute majority in the 631-seat Bundestag. The SPD has 193 members of the parliament, compared with 311 for the Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union, its sister party. The SPD is therefore determined to make certain it does not simply become a rubber stamp for a centre-right government. The coalition contract will not be a handful of pages, as in the most recent UK coalition agreement, but a daunting 100-plus page manuscript of very detailed policies. "In Germany, we like everything to be written down," says Jürgen Falter, politics professor at Mainz university. The smaller partner will try to protect itself by making it all legally precise and clear. To do so the two sides agreed on Tuesday on a cumbersome negotiating structure. There will be a 75-strong umbrella body - 30 from the SPD and 45 from the CDU/CSU - and 12 working groups for different subjects, with four subgroups, making up a grand total of some 300 people involved in the process. Last time they negotiated such a grand coalition - in 2005, when the election result was very close - they needed only 32 in the big group, including Ms Merkel. Even then it was considered too big for easy agreement. Talks lasted two months. The process is further complicated by the SPD having spelt out a host of specific policies in its election campaign - such as a statutory minimum wage and tax rises for high earners. It must now fight to get as much as it can into the coalition contract. In contrast, Ms Merkel's election platform was much vaguer, focused on her "safe pair of hands" rather than her policies, so she has fewer "red lines." The most obvious is a commitment to no tax rises. Another is no debt mutualisation in the eurozone for the foreseeable future. Ms Merkel will not ride roughshod over the SPD demands. She is too good a negotiator for that. She is well aware the Social Democrats will put the end result to an internal party referendum. The chancellor's four big challenges for her next administration are stabilising the eurozone; cutting the cost of the energy transition from nuclear and fossil fuels to renewable energy; federal reform; and coping with Germany's demographic crisis. All are capable of agreement with the SPD. But the dangerous temptation will be to put too much detail into the contract - especially on crisis management in the eurozone - so that subsequent compromises prove impossible. For all the comprehensive detail, the end result will probably still be a fudge: there will be more generous spending plans - increased pensions, school spending, and the like - than can be financed without raising taxes. However precise such a political contract seeks to be, it must always leave some room for manoeuvre. That is where Ms Merkel, the supreme pragmatist, knows she can afford to be generous at the start.