“I wouldn’t say we have come any closer over the last four years, but we have a better sense of how fundamental some issues are to our political identities. “More than anything else, these meetings were about locating each other’s pain barriers,” said Nouripour. The most prominent figure on the right wing of Merkel’s party, 37-year-old Jens Spahn, has himself injected the Green-CDU links with new life, meeting four times each year over the course of the last parliamentary term with Green politician Omid Nouripour to talk about issues including social justice, economic growth, agricultural policy and refugees. Opposition from the conservative wing of the Christian Democrats is also likely to be less vocal than outside observers may assume. Possible coalitions based on current German election polling Peter Altmaier, one pizza-connection protagonist, is now Merkel’s chief of staff and widely regarded as her most trusted adviser.

Sources with access to the chancellor’s inner circle insist that she would personally prefer to govern with the Greens rather than the FDP alone. In a pre-election interview with left-leaning newspaper Taz, Merkel pointedly opened the door to a CDU-FDP-Green “Jamaica” coalition, saying: “I imagine that the humane shaping of globalisation could be very exciting for the Green party too.” A revival in the FDP’s fortunes after it failed to enter parliament in 2013 has put a return to the “black-yellow” CDU-FDP deal on the cards, but with the two parties currently amassing less than 50% of the vote between them in recent polls, they would need a third coalition partner.

The SPD is unenthusiastic about continuing as Merkel’s junior partner for another term: many of its members believe that only four years in opposition can rejuvenate the German centre-left’s appeal. But 22 years later these meetings – known as the “pizza connection” despite the Lombardian chefs at the restaurant serving only pasta – could provide the template for a new era in German politics if the Greens going to into coalition with Angela Merkel’s CDU after the 24 September election expected to give her another term as chancellor.Īll three of Merkel’s governments since 2005 have been coalitions: two “grand coalitions” with the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) and one with the pro-business FDP.

Pizza connection