Germany's biggest parties nervously await outcome of 'citrus' talks

Germany's search for a new coalition government has taken an extraordinary turn in the days after this weekend's close-fought election, as the parties that came top of the polls have, for the moment, been shut out of coalition talks.

Instead, two smaller parties, the Greens and the Free Democrats (FDP) have begun talks amongst themselves about their prospects of working together and, eventually, working with one of the top two to form a government.

"The powerful citrus coalition is meeting," reported the mass circulation Bild newspaper on Wednesday, accompanied by a picture of a lime and a lemon, referring to the trademark colours of the two parties: green and yellow.

The different coalitions in Germany are popularly referred to by the colours of the parties involved.

The Social Democrats (SPD), who won Sunday's elections, have red as their colour. They are seeking to build a so-called "traffic light" coalition with the Greens and FDP, in other words with red, green and yellow parties.

Talks between the "traffic light" parties could begin as early as this week, a senior SPD official said.

Conservative leader Armin Laschet has, however, not given up hope of forming his own coalition with the Greens and FDP, despite scepticism in his party and among the wider public about his conviction he had a mandate to pursue such an alliance and become chancellor.

Germany's next government will be the first in 16 years without Chancellor Angela Merkel at its head. Merkel led her conservatives to four successive election victories.

The conservative Christian Democrats and their sister party, the Christian Social Union, saw their voter share crash by more than 8 per cent compared to the last elections in 2017. The SPD won the elections with 25.7 per cent, gaining over 5 percentage points.

A survey by YouGov released on Wednesday indicated that 68 per cent of Germans want Laschet to step down from all his political posts. Thirteen per cent opposed this.