Squabble in Grand Coalition

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is calling on her junior coalition partners, the Social Democrats (SPD), to stop trying to sow seeds of discord between herself and state leaders in her Christian Democratic Union.

"The permanent attacks on conservative state premiers have to cease," Merkel said in a televised political talk show on Sunday. "The SPD has to respect the entire conservative party, just as they demand that we respect them."

Merkel's remarks came after three prominent SPD politicians -- including a member of her cabinet -- suggested that she lacked sufficient support within her own party, especially at the state level.

In an interview with the Welt am Sonntag newspaper, the leader of the SPD's parliamentary fraction, Peter Struck, said recent wrangling over health-care reform had shown that Merkel would have "a difficult time" attracting support on the local and state levels for further government compromises.

Social Democrat and German Health Minister Ulla Schmidt said in another newspaper interview that conservative state premiers had "not always been helpful" in the coalition's negotiations over the reforms.

Kurt Beck, the SPD's party leader, added that the conservatives "still had some work to do to clear up their leadership question."

Conservatives single out Struck

In their response, conservatives have decided to portray Struck as the main troublemaker, with Merkel saying conservative state premiers felt Struck's repeated criticism was "an impertinence."

Markus Söder, the secretary general of the CDU's Bavarian sister party, went even further in his criticism of Struck, daily Die Welt reported Monday.

"Struck is increasingly becoming a burden on the grand coalition," Söder told the paper.

He also called for an end to what he called "the Social Democrats' tactical game-playing in the interest of their own party."

Roland Koch, one of Merkel's main inner-party rivals and Hesse's state premier, seconded Söder's sentiments.

"There's not going to be a grand coalition at any price," Koch told the mass-market Bild newspaper on Monday. "I expect that the SPD to return to the sort of discipline necessary to maintain any coalition."

Discord remains

But calls for coalition loyalty can't obscure the conflicts inside the union of conservative Christian parties. While Merkel and conservative cabinet members have no choice but to compromise with the SPD, other conservative party leaders said they feel the chancellor may be giving away too much in the interests of maintaining the coalition.

In Sunday's television appearance, Merkel acknowledged that "the appearance of conflict" but added that, "In the future, the 'no, but...' attitude will have to give way to a 'yes, but...' stance so that problems can get solved."

The impression that local and national conservative leaders are not all on the same page is widely seen as one of the reasons why the CDU has been falling in political polls.

At a local party conference in eastern Germany this week, CDU Secretary General Ronald Pofalla said the polls should serves as "a wake-up call for all those who have not always put conservative unity and solidarity at the center of their plans."

Opposition delight at "interview war"

The tense tone both within conservative ranks and between the two coalition partners is music to the ears of Germany's opposition parties.

"The interview war between the heads of the coalition parties is evidence of the breathtakingly rapid disintegration of this government," Guido Westerwelle, the head of the free-market liberal Free Democrats, told a Berlin newspaper on Monday.

On the other side of the political spectrum, Reinhard Bütikofer, the co-leader of the Greens, accused conservatives and Social Democrats of putting partisanship ahead of the public welfare.

"In so obviously prioritizing party interests," Bütikofer said in a Monday newspaper interview. "CDU head Merkel, SPD head Beck and SPD parliamentary leader Struck are not living up to their responsibility for this country."