German Government Hinges on Party Tally

BERLIN—Germany’s political future is staked on a ballot among the fractious rank-and-file of a once-mighty party that is still reeling months after its worst electoral showing since World War II.
Some 460,000 members of the ailing Social Democratic Party will decide by the end of next week whether to renew its unloved coalition with the conservative Christian Democratic Union of Chancellor Angela Merkel or go into opposition, a choice that would push Europe’s largest economy into uncharted political territory.
Six months after an inconclusive general election that has yet to produce a stable government, the European Union’s pre-eminent member and longtime anchor of political stability has stumbled into the kind of chronic uncertainty long associated with smaller members of the bloc.

Source : wsj