The Washington Post reports: The impasse that has gripped German politics all week showed signs of breaking Friday as a main center-left party backed down from pledges that it would not consider teaming with Chancellor Angela Merkel to form a government.

The shift gives Merkel a potential path out of a crisis that’s been called the worst of her 12-year tenure. It also lessens the chance that Germans will go back to the polls in early 2018 after an inconclusive September election left the country without an obvious formula for a stable government.

Merkel’s center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) remains the dominant party, but still needs to work with other parties to cobble together a governing partnership [Continue reading…]