About 80 pages should be long document, the chancellery head Helge Braun (CDU) has put together leading for the grand coalition. It contains the mid-term review of GroKo. On Wednesday it should be submitted to the previous plans in the Cabinet - but now have CDU, CSU and SPD on Sunday evening in the coalition committee agreed to postpone this to the beginning of November.
It is like this: The coalition commits these days only their halftime, if it actually holds out until the end of the legislature in 2021. And because of the dynamics in the SPD, there are serious doubts that the Social Democratic rulers and their partners in the CDU and CSU would like to continue their coalition, the document will be kept under wraps for the time being.
What are a few days more or less, when it comes to the basics, one says in the Union.
The fact that the coalition believes that they have ruled well is beyond question. The findings of their own work should be similarly positive as in a study of the Bertelsmann Foundation, which attested to the government a few weeks ago more than 60 percent completed projects under the coalition agreement in half of the entire legislature.
But a project is still missing - and that is particularly important to the SPD: the basic pension.
Labor Minister Hubertus Heil wants to enforce the project without means test, parts of the Union goes too far. SPD General Secretary Lars Klingbeil recently emphasized in the SPIEGEL interview the importance of the basic pension. A compromise with the Union would be a great success for his party, he said. With an agreement, the coalition's balance sheet "will certainly be more positive than if we fail in this identity issue for the SPD". In addition, he could not imagine that CDU and CSU broke the coalition because of the ground rent, said Klingbeil.
Although there is little evidence of a breakthrough so far, the SPD remains optimistic. There is still a chance for a compromise before the Thuringia election next Sunday, it is said from party circles, one is not so far apart. Anyway, there should be an agreement by the end of next week, that is to say - then it's November.
Basic pension against GroKo frustration
The hope, as already formulated by Secretary-General Klingbeil: With a ground rent in the mid-term review it would be much harder for the GroKo opponents in the party to justify why the SPD should leave the coalition. The SPD has said that the review of government work was included in the coalition agreement after one and a half years. Thus, in chapter XIV under item 6. "Evaluation":
In the middle of the legislative period, "an inventory of the coalition agreement will be made to what extent its provisions have been implemented or new projects must be agreed on the basis of current developments".
On the one hand, it was all about calming down the GroKo opponents. On the other hand, there should also be a possibility to follow up. This means that current developments that were not foreseeable a year and a half ago should be included in government work until 2021.
The Union did not value this passage at the time, but carried it along just as it now has no problem postponing the mid-term review.
What makes the SPD from the half-time balance?
More important than the paper that the government plans to present in November will anyway be what the SPD and its future party leaders are making of it. What if a duo is elected to the top, which wants to leave the coalition anyway? And even in the event that Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz lands with his partner Clara Geywitz at number 1: So then the balance sheet enough, so that they persuade the party conference in early December from continuing?
It is not even clear whether the delegates formally vote on the whereabouts of the coalition. It is also possible that the party convention only formulates goals - for the second half of the legislative period.
To advise on a possible recommendation to the congress is a group of 41 comrades, the so-called extended presidium. In addition to leading comrades and ministers, Juso CEO Kevin Kühnert, the chairman of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Sozialdemokratischer Frauen (ASF), Maria Noichl, and Achim Post, head of the NRW state group in the Bundestag, sit in this committee. For the first time, the group will meet after the Cabinet decision on the mid-term review.
Stand now is the beginning of November.
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