SPD leader Martin Schulz and Labour Minister Andrea Nahles at the Bundestag | John MacDougall/AFP via Getty Images Martin Schulz: Let Germany vote again if Merkel’s coalition talks fail ‘We made a conscious decision to go into the opposition,’ the SPD party chief said

Martin Schulz, the leader of Germany's Social Democrats (SPD,) wants Germany to hold a new election if Chancellor Angela Merkel fails to form a government after talks with three potential coalition partners.

If the negotiations fail, "there will have to be new elections," Schulz, who lost to Merkel in last month's general election, told Funke Media newspapers in an interview published Saturday.

In late September, Merkel scored the fourth general election victory of her career but lost ground to the far-right. At the same time, Schulz' center-left Social Democrats suffered the worst defeat in the party's history.

After the SPD said they would not spend another term as Merkel's junior partner in a so-called "grand coalition," the only viable option for the longtime chancellor became an alliance between her conservative bloc, the liberals and Greens — a combination dubbed 'Jamaica' because of the parties' colors, which has never governed before at the national level in Germany.

Schulz said he was "completely sure" that Merkel's current talks would be successful but reiterated his party's position that even if the "Jamaica" negotiations failed, the SPD was not willing to reconsider another term in Merkel's shadows.

"We made a conscious decision to go into the opposition, well-aware of the consequences," he said.

At the same time, he dodged the question on whether he would re-run for SPD party chief when the party convenes for its next party convention in December.

"At this point, this question is not up for debate," he said, "If we want to think about conquering the chancellery back in the foreseeable future, we have to [focus on] reforming the party comprehensively."