Armin Laschet, the head of outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), appeared buoyant after meeting with Green Party leaders on Tuesday.

"We have clear differences," Laschet told reporters after the talks, "but differences that are not insurmountable."

Laschet appeared alongside Markus Söder, the leader of the CDU's Bavarian sister party, the CSU, and Green Party co-chairs Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck.

Baerbock was perhaps less upbeat when addressing the press, saying that, while the discussions with the CDU had been "constructive and serious," the parties, "on some topics, especially social policy, are rather far apart."

All the parties have agreed to keep more specific policy discussions private during these preliminary talks, meaning that the politicians confined themselves to generalities.

Why are the parties holding talks?

After Germany's federal elections on September 26, the Social Democrats (SPD) emerged with a narrow victory over the CDU. 

The third- and fourth-place finishers, the Green Party and the neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP), respectively, have found themselves in the position of kingmakers. They must now establish whether they can reach a working deal with either of the country's largest parties, and if they can, decide which they prefer.  

To that end, leaders from all of the top four parties have been meeting for bilateral talks over the past week.

What happens next?

Although the FDP and Green Party have signaled that they would move forward as a unit, this process will not necessarily be smooth sailing. Outside of being future-focused, the two parties' platforms have little in common and it is widely accepted that the FDP is more closely ideologically aligned with the CDU and the Greens with the SPD.

Green leader Robert Habeck told reporters that his party and the Free Democrats would make their path forward clear as soon as this week: "The FDP and we will certainly now evaluate the talks as a whole. ... We will take time for that today and tomorrow."

After Germany went without a government for nearly six months during coalition talks in 2017, all parties have appeared eager to avoid another such political stalemate. Both Laschet and SPD leader Olaf Scholz have vowed to have a new government before Christmas.

es/msh (dpa, Reuters)