Plans for a provincial alliance between Germany's co-ruling Social Democrats (SPD) and the small opposition Left party foundered Monday, with four dissenting legislators in the state of Hesse withdrawing their support.
The fragile link-up, drafted by the state SPD leader Andrea Ypsilanti, had been described by opponents as possibly a model for a federal government after a general election in September next year.
The SPD is reluctant to continue its coalition with Christian Democratic Chancellor Angela Merkel past that date. But the Left is anathema to many western voters because of its roots in the old East German communist party.
Four state SPD legislators said in Wiesbaden, the state capital, they would not support Ypsilanti, who had planned to oust the incumbent premier, Roland Koch, a Christian Democrat, in a state legislature session this Tuesday.
At a news conference in Berlin, SPD national leader Franz Muentefering scolded the four for waiting to the last minute to act, terming it "odd." He called for the Hesse SPD to reunite, saying, "The best for all involved would be to talk to one another."
The four dissenters, Dagmar Metzger, Juergen Walter, Silke Tesch and Carmen Everts, said that as a matter of conscience they would not support a government backed by the Left Party.
Ypsilanti and the state's Greens party had gradually agreed over the past few weeks to form a minority government to be "tolerated" by the Left, meaning Left legislators would back the state government in key votes to give it a two-vote majority.
Koch has hung on in power since a tied election January. Merkel was eager to keep him in place, after another ally, the Christian Social Union in Bavaria, lost its absolute majority in state elections on September 28.
To date, the Social Democrats have only formed coalitions with the Left in eastern Germany, where the Left has its main vote bloc.
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