BERLIN—The fate of Angela Merkel’s government was in question Saturday after the junior partner in her coalition picked leaders who have pledged to end the alliance unless they get policy concessions from her conservatives.
The decision by the center-left Social Democratic Party puts new stress on a government that has been riven by tensions since its inception. It also reveals the strains of a political center that has shrunk in recent years as challengers on the far-right, far-left and in the environmental movement have gained strength.
It means that Europe’s largest country is set for months of renewed uncertainty as parties brace for a new ballot and Berlin is about to take on the rotating presidency of the European Union next year.
Two candidates who oppose the SPD’s participation in the coalition won leadership ballot, the SPD said on Saturday. Their appointment must be confirmed at a party convention next weekend.
Norbert Walter-Borjans, former minister of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, and Saskia Esken, a member of parliament, represent the party’s left wing. They have vowed to end the coalition should Ms. Merkel’s conservatives refuse to renegotiate the alliance’s platform.
While the duo’s election is unlikely to result in Ms. Merkel’s immediate resignation as chancellor, the probability that her government will serve its full term to the Autumn of 2021 has fallen. Ms. Merkel, now in her 14th year in power, has said that she wouldn’t run again.
The demands include raising the hourly minimum wage from about €9 ($10) to €12, abandoning a policy of balancing the federal budget to boost infrastructure investment and welfare spending, and introducing more ambitious measures to combat climate change.
Many of these demands are seen as red lines for Ms. Merkel’s conservatives, who would likely be unable to accept such conditions.
“It will not be an automatic breakdown,” said Klaus Schroeder, a professor of political science at Berlin’s Free University. “The SPD will try hard to negotiate concessions.”
Even if the coalition broke up, the road to new elections wouldn’t be immediate given that the German constitution doesn’t allow the government to dissolve parliament and trigger new polls, even if SPD ministers resign.
In such a scenario, Ms. Merkel would have a choice between stepping down, calling a confidence vote, trying to lead a minority government under her leadership or that of another member of her party, or entering negotiations to form a new government. People close to the chancellor say they think new elections next year would eventually prove inevitable.
Opinion polls show Ms. Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union would likely win a snap election, but with a much reduced score compared with 2017, when it got 32.9% of the votes, making it even harder to form a government. At the time, the result was the party’s worst since 1949 and it took six months for Ms. Merkel to cobble together a ruling alliance.
“We want to govern Germany well, and we have created the foundations for this in our coalition agreement,” Paul Zemiak, secretary-general of the CDU, said on Saturday. “This internal decision of the SPD hasn’t changed anything.”
Write to Bojan Pancevski at bojan.pancevski@wsj.com
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