Germany's Social Democrats back coalition agreement

Germany's Social Democratic Party (SPD) candidate for chancellor Olaf Scholz attends a hybrid party conference for the approval of the traffic light coalition agreement at the party headquarters in Berlin, Germany, December 4, 2021. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke/Pool

BERLIN (Reuters) - Members of Germany's Social Democratic party (SPD), which narrowly won a federal election in September, voted on Saturday to back a coalition agreement with the Greens and Free Democrats that should allow the three-way alliance to take over next week.

The coalition, the first at federal level between the ideologically disparate Greens, the libertarian Free Democrats (FDP) and Olaf Scholz's centre-left SPD, will end 16 years of conservative governments led by Chancellor Angela Merkel.