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Traffic light talks: coalition negotiations could drag on

2021-10-21T12:40:37.555Z


Negotiations on a traffic light coalition begin. The parties want to avoid friction and get things done quickly. Can it work? Earlier coalition talks could provide clues.


How long did the negotiations last?

Who gets which ministry?

The coalition negotiations in graphics

The mirror

Christmas should end at the latest: by then, the SPD, Greens and FDP want to have concluded their negotiations on a traffic light coalition.

That sounds ambitious compared to the formation of the government in 2017.

After the federal election at the time, the Union, the Greens and the FDP explored a Jamaica alliance for four weeks until FDP leader Lindner announced his party's withdrawal.

This was followed by explorations and coalition negotiations between the SPD and the Union.

The new cabinet was sworn in only 171 days - almost half a year - after the federal election.

This should now go faster, and democracy researcher Robert Vehrkamp from the Bertelsmann Foundation is optimistic.

He assumes that the parties have learned from the failure of 2017.

The exploratory paper by the SPD, Greens and FDP already communicates a common narrative.

"If that succeeds in the coalition negotiations, we will have a new government before Christmas," says Vehrkamp.

The way to form a government is not regulated by law in Germany.

The fact that the two smaller parties first exchanged views with the FDP and the Greens in preliminary explorations this year was new compared to negotiations during the previous election periods.

Coalition agreements are also an invention of the parties.

In the seventies the government declarations of the new chancellor were considered to be groundbreaking, in the eighties loose coalition agreements were published.

More text for more commitment

A look at the contracts and agreements since 1990 shows that not only has the number of negotiation days increased, but the contracts have also become more extensive.

Whereas the Union and FDP managed to get by with around 10,000 words in 1994, in 2013 and 2017 there were already more than six times as many.

The longer and more detailed contracts, especially those of the last two legislative periods, ensure that coalition work is more binding, says researcher Vehrkamp.

This can be used to check whether a government is keeping what it promises.

In addition, the formalization of politics in coalition agreements is also a counterweight to the power of informal party and coalition rounds, which have a strong influence on everyday government, especially in coalition governments.

In the current coalition agreement between the Union and the SPD, Vehrkamp and his research team have identified almost 300 specific promises.

The grand coalition implemented most of these as planned.

However, says the scientist, the document reads "in many chapters more like an indented collection of small-scale projects."

There is no connecting narrative and profile.

Such a contract should not only create binding force, but also communicate a common vision.

The personnel issue

In the end, however, people could be more important than visions.

At the very end of the coalition agreement, there is usually a short but crucial point: the division of the federal ministries among the parties.

Currently, the SPD, Greens and FDP emphasize that it is not initially about personnel issues - these should be clarified at the end.

But that is probably only lip service, as the discussion about the occupation of the Ministry of Finance shows.

The big ministries are important bargaining chips.

In the past, the Chancellery and the Ministry of Finance were often led by the same party.

The smaller coalition partner provided the foreign minister.

The profile of the parties also plays a role.

Since 1990 the Minister for Economic Affairs has always come from the FDP whenever the party was involved in a government.

The Greens headed the Ministry of the Environment from 1998 to 2005.

It is possible, however, that what responsibilities the ministries will have in future will also play a role.

This has changed again and again in the past decades - also because some portfolios have disappeared.

Until 1998 there was still a Ministry of Post and Telecommunications, which was dissolved when the postal system was privatized.

In 2002 work and economy were united in a super ministry.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs, in turn, became the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy in 2013 and was given responsibility for energy saving from the Ministry of Transport.

In this legislative period, too, the responsibilities are likely to change.

There could be a new climate ministry, business associations are calling for a digital ministry to be set up.

There is not much time left until Christmas to discuss all of this.

Collaboration: Achim Tack

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2021-10-21

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