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Saxony-Anhalt has certainly set international trends in the past: the Reformation by Martin Luther, the Bauhaus in Dessau, Tokio Hotel. Well then: the Kenya coalition.
Since 2016, the coalition of CDU, SPD and Greens governs in Magdeburg more bad than right. Again and again it crashed into Magdeburg. However, this does not seem to deter the neighbors from trying. After the two state elections in Saxony and Brandenburg on September 1, the parties there want - or must - now form a Kenya coalition. In Saxony, appropriate exploratory talks are currently taking place and in Brandenburg, the three parties showed up on Thursday evening in the state press conference to announce that they have the sounding behind them and now start coalition negotiations.
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While in Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt in purely mathematical terms no other option was possible, there would have been a gossip in the newly elected Brandenburg state parliament with a mandate for a red-red-green coalition. But SPD Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke waved off.
DPA / Christophe Gateau
Michael Stuebgen (CDU, lr), acting party chairman of the CDU Brandenburg, Dietmar Woidke (SPD), Prime Minister of Brandenburg, Ursula Nonnemacher (Alliance 90 / The Greens), group leader in Brandenburg: Until Christmas must be a coalition.
Majority with left would have been scarce
"I would like to thank the Left for ten years of reliable, good and productive cooperation," said Woidke on Thursday evening in the state press conference. For ten years SPD and Left ruled together in Brandenburg, now they missed their own majority. The narrow majority with left plus Greens would have been too sensitive for the comrades. Also with the exploratory discussions one found not quite to each other. The Brandenburg Left lost almost eight percent in the elections and would have demanded a lot from the SPD and the Greens to reassure their own party base.
The greens see it differently. Green Party leader Ursula Nonnemacher does not conceal that her party would rather have ruled with the left. "We could not enforce the favored government coalition," she says. "But the SPD has a government mandate as the strongest force." It is therefore clear to whom she blames the CDU government participation.
A green party council decided with 13 votes and three votes against a recommendation of the coalition negotiations with the Kenya partners. The final decision will be made by a small party on Saturday. Above all, the Green Youth drums against the Kenya Alliance. A surprise is not expected on Saturday.
The CDU is relieved to be involved in the government
The partners in Brandenburg negotiated the last two weeks for 60 hours, and the head of the Federal Green Party, Annalena Baerbock, also sat at the negotiating table. The result is a ten-page "exploratory paper". "We have never probed at this level of detail," says Woidke.
This is what the partners have negotiated for Brandenburg:
- There should be no new open pit or open pit extensions. The country is committed to the coal compromise, which provides for an exit from coal-fired power generation in 2038. The affected municipalities in Lusatia are to be significantly involved in the steps of structural change.
- For public contracts there should be a lower wage limit of 13 euros, it says in the paper.
- A separate prison for deportation detainees should not exist in Brandenburg. The exploratory partners had fiercely argued about that. The deportation detainees will continue to be housed in Berlin.
- The partners were also able to decide on a number of social issues: for example, a "Pact for Nursing Care" is to be launched, a rental price brake is to be examined, as well as non-contributory day care places and a 365 Euro ticket for public transport are planned.
At the CDU, apparently, the liberal wing had prevailed that could enforce its own accents. The Christian Democrats are in any case relieved to be involved in the government. Shortly after the election, the state party saw off its top campaigning Ingo Senftleben and ran the risk of falling back into old trench warfare. Acting CDU chief of state Michael Stübgen now says that he had a great stone from the heart, that they have come to an agreement. Two weeks ago it looked "almost impossible". Now all partners could have found themselves in the elaborated paper.
The paper is binding, say the coalition partners. But: "An exploratory result is an exploratory result, and not a completed coalition agreement," says Woidke. The coalition negotiations are due to start on Monday. Then the journey to Kenya really starts.