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Winfried Kretschmann has been Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg since 2011
Photo: Bernd Weißbrod / dpa
On Monday, the FDP, the last of the three partners in a possible traffic light coalition, agreed to start coalition negotiations.
A heart project of the Greens, a speed limit on German autobahns, will in all probability not exist if a government is formed.
Baden-Württemberg's Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann is not particularly surprised that his party was unable to prevail in the exploratory talks with the SPD and FDP.
"I was expecting it," Kretschmann said to journalists on Tuesday in Stuttgart.
He does not consider the Greens to be weakened because of this issue in the negotiations.
"The climate change does not fail because of this"
"Everyone has to give something in the explorations," said Kretschmann, who had participated in the exploratory negotiations for the Greens.
However, he considers the resistance to a speed limit to be irrational: "I have said earlier that what an American's weapon is, is the Germans' speed."
A speed limit would have made sense for many reasons, for example in preparation for autonomous driving, but it is of "less importance" for carbon dioxide emissions, said the Green politician.
"The climate change will not fail because of this." Because he was not a fan of symbolic politics, he had long since decided: "I will no longer devote myself to it."
svs / AFP
