After lengthy negotiations, the CDU, CSU and SPD have agreed on a coalition committee meeting before Christmas. The meeting is scheduled to take place at the Chancellery on 19 December and is eagerly awaited due to the demands of the new SPD leadership.
The newly elected SPD party leaders Saskia Esken and Norbert Walter-Borjans, together with Vice-Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Group leader Rolf Mützenich, intend to negotiate new projects with the Union. Under their new leadership, the SPD is particularly interested in investments of billions of euros in infrastructure, a higher minimum wage and improvements to the climate package.
The SPD party congress had decided over the weekend that the party executive committee should judge on the basis of the discussions, "whether the urgent tasks in this coalition are to be mastered". Vice-Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) announced: "There are no ultimatums or red lines drawn." There will be no fixed date for deciding whether the coalition will continue.
First getting to know Merkel and SPD leaders
Already this morning, the Social Democratic leadership duo Esken and Walter-Borjans met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU). Coalition circles said it was a get-together. Content specifications did not exist. Walter Borjans drew a positive balance after the meeting. "We had a one-hour good conversation, very open and pleasant," he told the "Rheinische Post".
CDU leader Kramp-Karrenbauer had repeatedly stressed in recent days that there would be no new or renegotiations on the coalition agreement. Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) also warned the coalition against self-employment. "We have decided a lot, have also decided a lot," he said. "The problem was just that, nobody really noticed, because we talk too little about the topics and too much about sensitivities: How's who in governing?" Citizens are interested in how politics solve problems.
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Ex-Union faction leader Friedrich Merz (CDU) called on the leadership of his party to not unconditionally cling to the coalition with the SPD. If necessary, the alliance must be canceled, he told the magazine "Focus". "The downward trend of the SPD triggers a pull, in which threatens the CDU einzugeraten."
Kramp-Karrenbauer had "good experiences in the Saarland with a clear cut at a time when a similar paralysis in the former state government was no longer resolvable," said Merz. Also in the federal government there must be "a point at which the Union says: It is enough". Obviously you have not arrived at this point yet.
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In the direction of Merkel, Merz asked: "Does the German government still comply with the national and international requirements that are being placed on it? I share the impression of most voters that this is no longer the case." A black-green coalition after the next federal election is a promising option.