BERLIN: Senior members of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives on Saturday rejected the vision for a United States of Europe put forward by the Social Democrats (SPD), with whom they are hoping to form a governing coalition. SPD leader Martin Schulz said on Thursday his party, which suffered its worst post-war election result in September, would only gain support by providing a clear vision of Europe, and called for a “United States of Europe” by 2025. Merkel’s conservatives, who lost voters to the far-right due to their liberal migrant policy, want the SPD to agree to a last-ditch alliance with them after talks on a tie-up with two smaller parties collapsed. Discussions on maintaining the alliance that has governed Germany since 2013 are due to start on Wednesday but the two parties look set to clash over the issue of Europe, which is likely to play a key role in talks. Senior conservative Volker Kauder said Schulz’s European proposal posed “a danger to the EU and citizens’ approval of Europe” and Peter Altmaier, Merkel’s chancellery chief, said the idea, and especially the timeframe, was unrealistic. An Emnid poll for Bild newspaper found less than a third of Germans (30 percent) supported Schulz’s idea while almost half (48 percent) rejected it. Published in Daily Times, December 10th 2017.