Baden-Württemberg's new government: a walk for the Greens

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Prime Minister Kretschmann, CDU state chief Strobl at the presentation of the coalition agreement

Photo: Bernd Weissbrod / dpa

The cover picture of the new coalition agreement says it all.

On it you can see a sun-drenched forest in the morning, wild and beautiful Baden-Württemberg nature - lots of green, little black.

Less than eight weeks after the state elections on March 14, Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann and the Southwest CDU agreed on a route for the next five years.

The coalition agreement was presented in Stuttgart this Wednesday.

"The coalition agreement is the blueprint for the renewal that we are striving for," said Kretschmann at the presentation.

CDU regional chief Thomas Strobl spoke of a "strong partnership for innovation." Everything new, that was the message.

The goal of the coalition is to make Baden-Württemberg climate neutral.

State policy is to be geared towards the 1.5 degree target.

Among other things, the government wants to introduce mandatory solar power for new buildings, create 1,000 wind turbines and expand the open-space photovoltaic systems.

Organic agriculture is to be expanded to 40 percent by 2030.

Added to this is the transformation of the automotive industry, which is so important for the country.

Key technologies for emission-free driving should be consistently promoted.

Permanent junior partner CDU

Kretschmann had already announced during the election campaign that climate protection - in addition to coping with the corona crisis - was his top priority.

In the state elections in March, his Greens triumphed with 32.6 percent over the Southwest CDU, which suffered a historic defeat with 24.1 percent.

After that, the vote king Kretschmann could choose his coalition partner.

The conservative Swabian relied on the tried and tested and decided against a traffic light coalition with the SPD and FDP.

In doing so, he offended large parts of his own party.

They actually wanted to get rid of the CDU.

After the election, the Christian Democrats quickly made it clear to the Prime Minister that they would go far to meet him.

The former "Baden-Württemberg Party" has become a permanent junior partner by the grace of Kretschmann.

CDU country chief Strobl diplomatically calls this "consensus coalition".

The "consensus" that was sworn, however, was evidently mainly that the CDU quickly vacated important positions in the coalition negotiations - much to the displeasure of the base.

Last year, for example, the Christian Democrats successfully blocked the solar obligation on private new buildings.

This was "an unnecessary paternalism of the citizens and would make building and living even more expensive," said CDU parliamentary group leader Wolfgang Reinhart at the time.

His party also rejected the truck toll on state and municipal roads until the end because it could burden the companies in the state.

Now the financing instrument has been laid down in the coalition agreement.

Policy subject to budget

The green-black coalition will be in good use of money. Due to the horrendous expenditure in the pandemic, the budget situation is tight. For many of the plans from the coalition agreement, it is not yet entirely clear how they are to be financed. This also applies to climate protection projects. The entire coalition agreement is "subject to a budget reservation," Prime Minister Kretschmann announced last week.

“The coalition agreement contains a lot of announcements, but hardly any concrete measures.

This is not a new beginning, but a standstill, «says SPD country chief Andreas Stoch, who would have liked to have co-governed himself.

Kretschmann did not venture anything new, but rather sought the solution that was least disruptive for him, said Stoch.

In addition, the Christian Democrats had “done a political limbo dance.

They stayed below their programmatic yardstick in all areas «.

Participants in the coalition negotiations actually report an apparent lack of ideas on the part of the CDU.

But it is also clear that their tactics have paid off in terms of power politics.

Kretschmann treats his decimated coalition partner more than fair.

Although the Christian Democrats have to hand over the important Ministry of Culture to the Greens, they still hold five of eleven specialist departments, including the Ministry of the Interior and a newly created department for building, housing and spatial planning.

The Southwest CDU wants to position itself in the medium term as a bourgeois, ecological alternative to the Greens - a plan that may soon also come to fruition in the federal government.

Whether it will work could be seen in the upcoming federal election in September.

The green member of the Bundestag Franziska Brantner from Heidelberg says: "Baden-Württemberg is an important signal for the federal government."

The coalition agreement once again clearly shows how important a high proportion of votes is for the implementation of one's own policy: "It pays to be at the top."