The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) have agreed on a framework document for further negotiations on forming a government, according to Der Spiegel. Less than two weeks after the early elections to the Bundestag,

In Germany, coalition governments are typically formed through a two-step process: parties first engage in exploratory talks to assess potential alliances before entering formal coalition negotiations

Election winner Friedrich Merz's conservative CDU, its Bavarian sister party CSU, and the Social Democrats (SPD) have taken a major step toward forming a coalition government, the heads of the parties said.