German Greens aim for new government with center-left leader

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s environmentalist Greens say they want to hold negotiations on a new governing coalition under the leadership of outgoing Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s center-left Social Democrats which narrowly won the country’s election. The Sept. 26 election left two parties as likely kingmakers. They are the Greens who finished third and the business-friendly Free Democrats who finished fourth. Those two parties could team up with either the Social Democrats or the center-right Union bloc of outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel for a parliamentary majority. The Greens’ leaders said Wednesday they have now proposed to the Free Democrats that the two parties go into three-way talks with Scholz’s Social Democrats.