It is clear that Germans do not want Mrs. Merkel as their chancellor.

We made it clear we want to govern with Schroeder as chancellor,

It is possible that we can still do it, that Gerhard Schroeder can be chancellor again.

We don't dispute that unified parliamentary groups can exist, but it must be clear that coalition talks are conducted by individual parties.

However secure the common faction may be, it must also be clear that coalition talks are led by parties ... and that that has consequences.

We held exploratory talks, we discussed policy. All personnel questions still need to be clarified, but we did not discuss them today.