Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Counting went on all night at SPD headquarters in Berlin

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is set to form her fourth government after the opposition Social Democrats (SPD) voted in favour of another grand coalition.

The vote by 464,000 rank-and-file members ends five months of political deadlock since September's election.

The SPD had been split between the party's leadership, which backed joining the coalition, and its radical youth wing, which did not.

Mrs Merkel, who has been in power for 12 years, congratulated the SPD.

On her party's Twitter feed, she said she "looks forward to working together again for the benefit of our country".

SPD voters approved continuing the coalition with 66% in favour. The party leadership had been concerned younger voters might veto a deal. Vote counting went on through the night at the party headquarters in Berlin.

Interim SPD leader Olaf Scholz declared: "Now we have clarity. The SPD will enter the next government".

The chancellor now faces a range of challenges, including strong opposition from the nationalist Alternative for Germany (AfD).

The anti-immigrant party entered the federal parliament for the first time in September with just over 12% of the vote and now makes up the largest opposition group.

Image copyright AFP Image caption SPD members applaud as the result is announced

The SPD suffered its worst ever election result and many blamed their coalition with Mrs Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) for that poor performance.

Mrs Merkel, who also did badly, losing 65 seats, had tried and failed to form an alliance with the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) and the Greens.

She was forced to pay a higher price for continuing the existing coalition - the new finance minister will be a Social Democrat.

The SPD will now decide who will fill the six ministerial roles it is entitled to before Mrs Merkel's expected election by parliament on 14 March.

Martin Schulz, the former high-profile SPD chairman, had put himself forward as a possible foreign minister, but dropped the plan amid internal party squabbles over who should fill the post.

He had also annoyed many party members by first ruling out a coalition in the aftermath of the SPD's poor election showing only to enter talks later.

The end to uncertainty, including the possibility of fresh elections, will be greeted with relief in the European Union's institutions, where Germany, Europe's largest economy, is a major influence.

Merkel has her work cut out

Analysis by Jenny Hill, BBC News, Berlin

Germany has waited nearly six months for this. Its new government is a continuation of the last one - a coalition between Angela Merkel's conservatives and the Social Democrats, or SPD.

Mrs Merkel will no doubt be relieved. But this is no glorious victory. The SPD - which had the final say on the coalition deal - has torn itself apart over the decision to renew the alliance. Many members still oppose it and the internal schism has worsened what were already dismal approval ratings.

There's also limited public enthusiasm for the union. Months of political wrangling (don't forget Mrs Merkel tried - and failed - to form a coalition with the Green and FDP parties) have done little to inspire confidence in Germany's established parties.

Angela Merkel, herself profoundly damaged by the whole episode, has her work cut out now if she's to deliver the stability she promised her country.</s>Angela Merkel has secured her fourth term after a 66% majority vote from Social Democratic Party (SPD) membership confirmed their commitment to another Grand Coalition government with the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union.

The deal extends the Grand Coalition of centre-left and centre-right parties that has governed Germany for the past 5 years. The SPD have been granted six cabinet positions, including not only Foreign Minister, previously held by SPD’s Sigmar Gabriel, but also Finance Minister which will, in all likelihood, be taken by acting SPD leader Olaf Scholz (pictured below).

The vote comes after months of political uncertainty, following Merkel’s failure to form a coalition with the FDP and Greens (the so-called ‘Jamaica Coalition’ because of the respective parties’ colours), after September’s federal election left Merkel’s CDU and their sister party – the CSU – a mere 34.7% of the seats in the Bundestag.

Due to the SPD’s worst performance at a federal election since the start of the republic, the Grand Coalition is now in a precarious position with their majority in the Bundestag only stretching as far as 56.3% of the seats. Moreover, a clause in their agreement will mean the coalition will be up for review in 2 years, which could mean a short-lived government, with many challenges.

With the centrist leadership of both parties continuing the Grand Coalition, despite the crushing election results, there is a risk of further disillusionment with the political establishment and centrist politics in general.

This could mean greater internal pressure from the SPD’s left wing, with figures such as Andrea Nahles (pictured above) tipped as a forerunner to take over leadership of the party. The current leadership support the coalition. However, the fast-growing youth wing on the left of the party disagreed with the move to join forces with the centre-right parties, hoping to rebuild the party with a more left-wing platform.

Moreover, there will be mounting external pressure from far-right and far-left parties. The SPD, in particular, have been sliding in the polls since the election last September, even dipping below the right-wing nationalist party, Alternative for Deutschland, last month. The AfD entered the federal parliament for the first time in September with just over 12% of the vote and are now Germany’s largest opposition party.

Merkel’s weaker position shows that she has, in many respects, lost the image of the leader of Europe, which now falls at the feet of French President, Emmanuel Macron, who is highly supportive of the coalition. A statement from his office declared that ‘France and Germany will work together on new initiatives in the coming weeks to bring the European project forward’. This sentiment was echoed in the Coalition agreement, which promised closer co-operation with France, seeking greater economic and defence integration, as well as a greater contribution to the EU budget from Germany.

Pursuing this European agenda is risky as it could turn more eurosceptic Germans towards the AfD and further weaken CDU’s position. However, a strong partnership between France and Germany is the kind of message Merkel would wish to send to Britain’s Brexit negotiation team as the anniversary of the triggering of Article 50 draws near.</s>German's center-left Social Democrats (SPD) have agreed to form a grand coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel's party, the CDU, after months of political uncertainty. The deal was reached despite divisions within the SPD.Some 66 percent of the SPD members approved entering a coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party Christian Social Union (CSU), the social democrats' official confirmed on Sunday after a postal ballot.Almost 464,000 members were eligible for voting, with a total of 378,437 having cast their ballot, NTV reports "We now have clarity," SPD chief Olaf Schols announced in the party's HQ in Berlin. He added that he'll work on putting a cabinet together this week. Scholz has already informed Merkel on his party fellows' decision. The acting Chancellor congratulated the SPD on the "clear result," saying she is looking forward to continuing work with the Social Democrats. If the Social Democrat members voted against the talks, it would almost certainly trigger fresh elections that could end Merkel's 12-year leadership of the country.In late February CDU on its part approved a coalition deal with the SPD. The Christian Democrats' conference in Berlin followed Merkel's announcement of her picks for a new, younger cabinet intended to rejuvenate the party.The stalemate to form a government has lasted for months, following the September 24 general election. Shortly after the polls, in which Merkel's party along with the SPD saw a dramatic drop in voter support, the chancellor attempted to form so-called 'Jamaica' coalition with the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and the Greens.The option evaporated as the FDP pulled out of the negotiations, with divisions over immigration being among the key stumbling blocks. Merkel was then forced to look for another coalition partner to avoid new polls or forming a minority government.Former SPD leader Martin Schulz repeatedly ruled out forming a coalition with the CDU both in the run-up to the September elections and after them. The parties locked horns over their vision for Europe, among other issues. Schultz has advocated strongly for the creation of a 'United States of Europe' under a single constitution by 2025. This position has received little support from CDU members.The potential new alliance with Merkel was also met with vehement opposition from some SPD members, especially within the party's youth wing. Against all odds and despite internal divisions in the SPD, the two parties finally reached a coalition deal in February.</s>Europe breathed a sigh of relief on Sunday as Germany’s five-month political deadlock ended with a fourth term for Angela Merkel.

After heated debate and several false starts, a closely-watched postal vote of the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) ended in two-thirds’ backing for another grand coalition in Berlin.

The result opens the door to another SPD alliance with Dr Merkel’s centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and her Bavarian CSU allies, and their third grand coalition since 2005.

“We now have clarity,” said Olaf Scholz, acting SPD leader. “This result gives us the strength we need to enter into government, get the country moving in the right direction, and start the process of renewal in the party.”

On Monday, President Frank Walter Steinmeier will nominate Dr Merkel as Germany’s next federal chancellor, to be voted on in the Bundestag parliament on March 14th. A new federal government is likely to be in place before Easter.

“It’s good for our country that this phase of insecurity has passed and that three parties are prepared to accept government responsibility,” said Mr Steinmeier, a long-time SPD politician who pressed his party to return to power despite a disastrous election result last September.

Almost 450,000 SPD members were entitled to vote on the coalition deal struck with the CDU/CSU. Of 362,933 valid postal ballots, some 239,604 members backed entering the grand coalition – 66 per cent support – while 123,329 opposed.

The result will bring relief to Berlin’s EU partners, ending post-war Germany’s longest-ever interregnum which left the continent in a holding pattern since last summer.

On Sunday Dr Merkel congratulated the SPD on its “clear vote”, and said she looked forward to a “continued co-operation for the good of our country”.

Her political future hung on the whim of the SPD vote after her first attempt to form an coalition – with the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) and Greens – failed last year.

SPD left-wingers and its vocal youth wing campaigned for a return to the opposition benches, as was promised on election night last September. However, SPD leaders exploited their leverage as Dr Merkel’s last alternative to fresh elections to secure an expansionist programme for government as well as the key finance, foreign and labour ministries.

“We have a good economic situation...we need investment, and we have the means for this, which we have to use sensibly,” said Andrea Nahles, the SPD Bundestag leader on Sunday evening.

French president Emmanuel Macron, waiting since September for a response from Berlin on his euro zone reform proposals, called Sunday’s vote “good news for Europe”.</s>Members of Germany's Social Democratic Party (SPD) on Sunday voted in favour of a coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives.

Over 66 percent voted "yes", Dietmar Nietan, head of the SPD Mandate and Counting Commission, announced at a press conference at the SPD Headquarters.

The 463,723 party members had between February 20 and Friday midnight to decide if they approved of their party again being part of a government led by Merkel, reports Efe news.

The conditions of the pact and the concrete measures that will be implemented were detailed in a 177-page deal that was negotiated between January and February.

It includes key proposals of the SPD and assigns major ministries such as finance and foreign affairs to the SPD.

The result ended a five-month-long political stalemate after the September 24, 2017, Federal Parliament elections.

Merkel is poised to be elected as the new chancellor in the March 14 plenary session of the Bundestag, the Federal Parliament.</s>Angela Merkel is set to lead Germany for a fourth term after she and her political party, the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), were once again able to form a governing coalition with the country’s second-largest party, the center-left Social Democrats (SPD). The SPD’s vote to join forces with the CDU on Sunday ended almost six months of political deadlock after Merkel’s party fared more poorly than expected in September’s election. As a result, the SPD discontinued its coalition with the CDU, denying the centrist Merkel the majority she needed to form a government.

Contentious negotiations between the country’s political parties dragged on fruitlessly for months, while Germany’s allies looked on nervously. Following the rise of Donald Trump in the U.S., along with the political chaos caused by the Brexit vote in the U.K., many now see Merkel as the de facto leader of the free world, particularly at a time when far-right nationalists are rising across Europe.

“It’s good news for Europe,” French president Emmanuel Macron said in celebration of the vote on Sunday.

The CDU originally tried to form a coalition with two other parties, but those talks collapsed in November, leaving the SPD as its only possible partner. The SPD, however was itself divided over whether to work with Merkel again, with the younger, more-radical wing of the party opposed to it. Without a coalition to form a government, the impasse could have led to new elections.

Instead, two thirds of SPD members voted to reconstitute the two parties’ “Grand Coalition” on Sunday, though the “Reluctant Coalition” might be a better name at this point. The swing toward working together was the result of a deal which granted the SPD control of Germany’s finance, foreign, and labor ministries in exchange for agreeing to limits on the number of migrants who will be allowed into the country. Immigration has been a particularly turbulent political issue in Germany, and the country’s far-right nationalist party, the Alternative for Germany (AfD), was able to win 13 percent of the vote in September — as well as seats for a nationalist party in parliament for the first time. The anti-immigration AfD is now the leading opposition party in the country, and continues to gain support in polls.

Germany’s parliament is expected to elect Merkel to her fourth term on March 14. She has led Germany for 12 years, and by the end of this new term, she will be tied with Helmut Kohl for the longest tenure as Germany’s chancellor. The Wall Street Journal reports that advisers close to Merkel say she intends for this term to be her last.</s>Members of Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD) voted 66 per cent in favour of entering a coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives, an SPD official said on Sunday after a postal ballot.

The vote clears the way for a re-run of the “grand coalition” that has governed Germany since 2013, putting an end to more than four months of political uncertainty in Europe’s largest economy.

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Get assembly election result LIVE updates from each constituency in Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya</s>German’s center-left Social Democrats (SPD) have agreed to form a grand coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel's party, the CDU, after months of political uncertainty.

Some 66 percent of the SPD members approved entering a coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party Christian Social Union (CSU), the social democrats’ official confirmed on Sunday after a postal ballot.

“We now have clarity,” SPD chief Olaf Schols announced in the party’s HQ in Berlin. He added that he'll work on putting a cabinet together this week. Scholz has already informed Merkel on his party fellows’ decision.

The stalemate to form a government has lasted for months, following the September 24 general election. The "grand coalition" has governed Germany since 2013.

If the Social Democrat members voted against the talks, it would almost certainly trigger fresh elections that could end Merkel’s 12-year leadership of the country.

In late February CDU on its part approved a coalition deal with the SPD. The Christian Democrats' conference in Berlin followed Merkel’s announcement of her picks for a new, younger cabinet intended to rejuvenate the party.</s>The members of Germany's left-leaning Social Democratic Party (SPD) have voted in favor of a new grand coalition under Christian Democrat (CDU) Chancellor Angela Merkel, the SPD announced from its Berlin headquarters on March 4 after a postal ballot.

The vote by 460,000 rank-and-file members ends about five months of political deadlock in the European Union's most-populous country.

Sixty-six percent of the Social Democratic Party's rank and file backed a new partnership with Merkel's conservatives.

The decision clears the last major hurdle to the formation of a new government and a fourth term for Merkel.

Merkel congratulated the Social Democrats (SPD) on a "clear result" on Twitter.

"I congratulate the SPD on this clear result and look forward to continuing to work together for the good of our country," Merkel wrote on March 4 on her Christian Democrats' (CDU) Twitter feed.

Parliament is expected to meet next week to elect Merkel as chancellor.

Based on reporting by Reuters, AFP, dpa, and the BBC</s>Members of Germany's Social Democrat Party (SPD) have voted in favour of entering a coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives in a postal ballot, according to a statement by the party.

The vote clears the way for a rerun of the "grand coalition" that has governed Germany since 2013. It also puts an end to more than four months of political uncertainty in Europe's largest economy by making Merkel the country's chancellor for the fourth term.

SPD acting leader Olaf Scholz said on Saturday turnout in the poll had been "very, very high" after an intense internal campaign that pitted the party's pro-coalition leadership against its more left-wing youth wing, which campaigned for "no".

Representatives from Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, alongside partners from the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) party, agreed on terms with SPD negotiators for a new partnership last month.

Al Jazeera's Dominic Kane, reporting from the capital Berlin, said that two-thirds of the party members voted to form another grand coalition with Merkel's bloc.

"It is a decisive majority, but there is no sense of jubilation among the SDP leadership," he said.

"The heads, rather than the hearts of the party members, made this decision. They believe being in coalition with Merkel costs this party votes."

Many in the party, including former leader Martin Schulz, had ruled out forming a coalition with Merkel's conservatives, saying that September's poll results - which saw the SPD recording its worst post-war election performance, at 20.5 percent - had directed the party to go into opposition.

However, the SPD agreed to negotiate with Merkel's conservatives after talks with the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) and the environmentalist Greens on a three-way tie-up collapsed in November.

Schulz, the who led the party during the elections, quit in the process of the coalition talks.

The SPD has already been the junior partner in two Merkel-led "grand coalitions", from 2005 to 2009 and from 2013 to 2017.

Merkel's CDU/CSU alliance had finished first, securing 33 percent of the vote, down nine percentage points from 2013.

The biggest shock, however, was the emergence of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party as the country's third-biggest political force, winning a 12.6 percent share of the vote.
SPD party members approve with 66% in favour to allow to form a coalition with Angela Merkel's CDU/CSU, ending a five-month political deadlock after the federal elections.