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German Chancellor Angela Merkel sets the stage for a battle against her coalition partner.

Speaking at a Sept. 5 election rally in Bavaria for upcoming state elections, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Germany must abandon its current policy of retiring all nuclear power plants by 2021, a direct jab at the Social Democratic Party (SPD), her Grand Coalition partner. Merkel did not have to campaign on behalf of allies in Bavaria because the state is sure to elect another Christian Social Union government — Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) sister party in Bavaria — by a large margin.

Merkel’s Sept. 5 statement is really about her setting the stage to battle SPD — a clash that may come to a head sooner rather than later. As chancellor, Merkel has the authority to call for early elections – currently scheduled for Sept. 28, 2009 — and her recent comments in Bavaria seem to indicate that she is leaning that way. Russia’s Aug. 8 intervention in Georgia has placed a renewed emphasis on Germany’s need to have a singular and more clearly defined foreign policy. As Merkel sees it, the time is right for Germany to explore alternative energy sources and take a firmer stance toward Russia, which supplies 43 percent of Germany’s natural gas.