2013 Elections in Germany

[Middle-aged Europe]

Just why, exactly, does Merkel need a coalition partner?  Is the idea of a minority government that scary for Germans?

Political culture, mostly. If you're not part of the governing coalition, then you're part of the opposition. And if you're part of the opposition your job is to push and if possible to bring down the governing coalition. There's no in-between. That's what every German politician is taught from the time he or she joined their respective political party.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Also, if you form a minority government the respective opposition parties - and perhaps the media too - usually accuse you of acting irresponsibly and not on the interest of the country by willfully putting up an "unstable" government.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Two days before the first (and only?) talks between CDU/CSU and Greens, leading CSU politicians have given interviews in which they reiterated their disdain for the Green Party.

Outgoing Green chairwoman Claudia Roth has retaliated by demanding an apology for the CSU's negative campaigning against the Greens.