Green leader: ‘Long way’ to go in talks to form German govt

BERLIN (AP) — A leader of the Greens say the multiparty talks on forming a new German government have “a long way to go” and will have to bridge significant policy differences. The center-left Social Democrats, the environmentalist Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats held their first round of talks Thursday on a possible coalition. If they succeed, the alliance would send outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right Union bloc into opposition after her 16 years leading Europe’s biggest economy. More talks are scheduled for Monday and Tuesday. One of the Greens’ two leaders told Deutschlandfunk radio in an interview broadcast Saturday that “we have a long way to go, and it will get very arduous.”