(Bloomberg) — Want the lowdown on European markets? In your inbox before the open, every day. Sign up here.The survival of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government hangs in the balance as her disgruntled coalition partner wrestles with its future.A three-day convention for the Social Democrats, which starts Friday in Berlin, marks the party’s latest effort to get itself on track after reluctantly entering a coalition to support Merkel for her fourth term two years ago. The convention is unlikely to spark an immediate withdrawal, but could dial up the already tense relations within the government.The SPD’s newly-elected leaders — a pair of outspoken coalition critics and Berlin outsiders — are pushing for concessions from Merkel’s Christian Democrat-led bloc. Many are likely to brush against conservative red lines.SPD Demand ListThe roughly 1,000 delegates are expected to rally behind the demands, which buys time for the duo of Norbert Walter-Borjans and Saskia Esken. The duo won an SPD leadership contest last weekend against a tandem led by coalition loyalist Olaf Scholz, Merkel’s finance minister and vice chancellor.The party’s leaders have softened their campaign pledges, but they will still be under pressure from a restive base and negotiations with Merkel’s bloc won’t be easy.Reopening a climate package that took months to secure will find little support from the CDU and its Bavarian sister party, the CSU. Equally, increasing the minimum wage towards the SPD target of 12 euros ($13) an hour could become a major bone of contention.Pushing too hard could be risky as pulling out of the coalition could trigger a snap election. That could be disastrous with support for the SPD on par with the far-right AfD. The CDU, led by the embattled Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, also has little incentive to seek an early, and Merkel is keen to see out her tenure, especially with Germany set to hold the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union in the second half of next year.The convention is likely to be rauscous, and the dynamics will give an indication of how much time Merkel has left, even if the SPD’s new leadership is stepping back from the brink.“We have always said that quitting the coalition is not an end in itself,” Walter-Borjans told journalists in Berlin on Thursday. “It’s about content and not about the question of yes or no.”(Adds details on demands in text box)–With assistance from Iain Rogers.To contact the reporter on this story: Birgit Jennen in Berlin at bjennen1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, ;Chad Thomas at cthomas16@bloomberg.net, Chris ReiterFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.