New SPD leaders to avoid outright call to quit German government - sources

Reuters

BERLIN, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Leaders of Germany's Social Democrats are leaning away from proposing the party quit Chancellor Angela Merkel's government as they work on a motion to put to delegates at a party congress, party sources said.

Norbert Walter-Borjans and Saskia Esken, leftist critics of the coalition with Merkel's conservatives, won a vote for leadership of the SPD on Saturday, putting Europe's largest economy at a political crossroads.

But Esken and Walter-Borjans, interim SPD leader Malu Dreyer and Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz agreed a wording on Tuesday for the motion that avoids setting tough conditions for staying in the coalition, three people familiar with the matter said.

At the congress starting on Friday, the SPD is set to demand that Merkel's conservatives discuss measures to stabilise Germany's slowing economy and improve an already agreed climate package, the sources said.

(Reporting by Holger Hansen, Writing by Michael Nienaber, Editing by Timothy Heritage)