Germany needs a new government fast. The center-right and center-left are set to hammer out an agreement by Easter, but there are several sticking points.

Germany's CDU, CSU and SPD parties have produced an exploratory paper on their plans on various topics, including migration, overcoming the first major hurdle on the way to forming a government together.

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