German coalition talks collapse. Merkel eyes new election

After the collapse of coalition talks between the liberal FDP and German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU/CSU and the Greens, the chancellor is due later Monday to meet President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who has the authority to call a snap election. Her bloc won September’s election, but the mainstream parties were pared down by the flight of voters. The far-right nationalist AfD won its first parliamentary seats on a pledge to fight immigration.