APOLDA Germany (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel warned the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), her junior partners in national government, against forming a coalition to install the first hardline Left party regional premier after Sunday polls in the eastern state of Thuringia.
"There's something strange happening in Thuringia," Merkel said, referring to speculation the SPD might switch allegiances in Thuringia, where they are now junior partners in a similar grand coalition as at the national level in Berlin, and join a coalition with the Left.