By Andreas Rinke, Vera Eckert and Matthias Williams BERLIN (Reuters) -German election winner Friedrich Merz's conservatives and the Social Democrats (SPD) concluded preliminary talks on forming a coalition government on Saturday,

German election winner Friedrich Merz's conservatives and the Social Democrats (SPD) have concluded preliminary talks towards forming a coalition government, heads of the parties said on Saturday.

In Germany, coalition governments are typically formed through a two-step process: parties first engage in exploratory talks to assess potential alliances before entering formal coalition negotiations

Germany’s conservative bloc and the Social Democrats agreed to deepen talks over forming a new government, a step forward as pressure builds on Chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz to implement sweeping reforms.

Election winner Friedrich Merz's conservative CDU, its Bavarian sister party CSU, and the Social Democrats (SPD) have taken a major step toward forming a coalition government, the heads of the parties said.