Berlin- The two parties in Chancellor Angela Merkel's grand coalition traded barbs Thursday over the collapse of a replica alliance in the north German state of Schleswig-Holstein. The state's Christian Democrats (CDU), led by Premier Peter Harry Carstensen, voted on Wednesday to end their coalition with the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) and seek a snap election on September 27, the same day as national polls.
Legislators in the state capital of Kiel were due to meet Friday to discuss dissolving parliament, but were not expected to take a vote until Monday. The next election is not due until May 2010.
Dissolving the parliament would require a two-thirds majority in the 69-member legislature where the CDU has 30 seats, the SPD 29 and other parties 10.
SPD leader Ralf Stegner said his party would oppose a dissolution. The SPD is lagging behind Merkel's conservatives in opinion surveys and fear losing influence if an election is held the same time as a national poll.
Merkel is appealing to voters to dump the SPD in the federal election and allow her to take up with a smaller party, the business- oriented Free Democrats, as a coalition ally.
CDU Secretary-General Ronald Pofalla called on the SPD Thursday to agree to early elections.
"The SPD in Schleswig-Holstein is no longer able to govern, because it does not have the will to to adhere to the decisions taken by the coalition. Herr Stegner bears responsibility for this."
SPD chairman Franz Muentefering called on Carstensen to resign if he is "no longer willing to remain at the helm of the cabinet in this coalition."
Carstensen does not get on well with Stegner, a member of the SPD's left wing. The CDU premier has often accused his rival of acting like an opposition politician instead of a coalition member.
If the CDU fails to win enough votes to dissolve parliament on Monday, Carstensen could decide to submit himself to a vote of confidence.
Asked if he would do this, Carstensen replied: "Let's wait for the outcome of the vote." Dissolving parliament is the most honourable way to deal with "the difficult situation," he said.
The CDU and SPD in the state differ on a number of key issues, among them nuclear power, funding for nursery schools and reform of local government.
But the crisis was triggered by Stegner's criticism of a 2.9- million-euro (4-million-dollar) payout to the head of the state-owned HSH-Nordbank, which had to be saved from bankruptcy by a government- funded bailout.
Carstensen claimed the SPD did not object to the payout when it was approved by the state government.
