German Greens see slow progress in talks on new government

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s environmentalist Greens are signaling that negotiations to form a new governing coalition are progressing slowly and differences remain over climate policy. The Greens last month entered negotiations with the center-left Social Democrats and the business-friendly Free Democrats on a new government after all three parties made gains in Germany’s Sept. 26 election. The alliance, in which Social Democrat Olaf Scholz would become chancellor, would send outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right Union bloc into opposition. The parties said at the time that they hoped to have a coalition agreement ready at the end of November and have Scholz take office in the week beginning Dec. 6. But the Greens are raising questions over whether that timetable will hold.