BERLIN — German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday an agreement within her conservative bloc on limiting migrants would help forge a new government coalition, but one of the key partners, the Greens, said it would not become policy. Ms. Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) agreed with their conservative CSU Bavarian allies on Sunday to limit to 200,000 the number of people Germany would accept per year on humanitarian grounds. It was part of Ms. Merkel’s drive to get the sister party on board so that she can start talks with the Greens and Free Democrats (FPD) on forming a “Jamaica” coalition — named for the black, green and yellow colors of the three blocs, which match the Caribbean island’s flag. “We achieved a joint result which I think is a very, very good basis to go into exploratory talks with the FDP and Greens,” Ms. Merkel told a joint news conference with her Bavarian counterpart Horst Seehofer on Monday. But underlying the difficulties in forging a coalition, the Greens said they disagreed with the migrant limit. — Reuters
