Enlarge image
FDP leader Christian Lindner (2nd from right) in the midst of Annalena Baerbock (Greens) and SPD politicians Olaf Scholz and Norbert Walter-Borjans
Photo:
via www.imago-images.de / imago images / Mike Schmidt
Three weeks after the general election, all parties to a possible traffic light government have agreed to formal coalition negotiations. According to matching media reports, the federal executive and parliamentary group of the FDP voted unanimously on Monday to start talks on forming a government with the SPD and the Greens. The news agency Reuters named next Thursday as the starting point of the negotiations with reference to party circles. However, this has not yet been finally clarified.
The liberals' approval of the start of the talks was considered likely. Most recently, on Monday morning, FDP General Secretary Volker Wissing expressed confidence that coalition negotiations with the SPD and the Greens would succeed. When asked about a possible failure, Wissing said on the broadcaster NDR Info: "This is not an option for us." You need a stable federal government. "And while we were having the talks, you also saw that alternative options to the traffic light are becoming increasingly unlikely."
The FDP won 11.5 percent of the vote in the federal election on September 26th.
The SPD got 25.7 percent and the Greens 14.8 percent (read all results here).
On Friday, the leaders of the SPD, the Greens and the FDP agreed on a joint exploratory paper for the coalition negotiations - and thus recommended entering into the negotiations on a traffic light coalition.
The SPD board had already voted unanimously for coalition negotiations on Friday, and the Greens voted in favor of starting the talks at a small party congress on Sunday.
The SPD would provide the chancellor in the alliance with Olaf Scholz.
More soon at SPIEGEL.de
svs / AFP / dpa