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Christian Lindner, Federal Chairman of the FDP
Photo: Emmanuele Contini / IMAGO
In all likelihood there will be no independent digital ministry in the new federal government.
This was reported by the »Handelsblatt«, citing circles familiar with the coalition negotiations.
The FDP, which is the only one of the three traffic light parties to expressly include such a department in its election manifesto, is "on the retreat" with its demand, according to a negotiator.
During the discussions in the specialist working group, the liberals sometimes gave the impression that they only had to say digital department and that all the balls were rolling towards them, said another insider, according to the “Handelsblatt”.
In the meantime, however, the FDP also seems to have realized that the establishment of a new ministry with the merging of various digital responsibilities would take too long and would slow down rather than accelerate the pace of digitization.
The representation was confirmed in FDP circles.
Accordingly, a "major technical restructuring" that would have to go hand in hand with the creation of a new ministry and the "bloodletting of personnel" in many other departments are seen as an obstacle.
In addition to the FDP and the digital associations, a large majority of Germans also spoke out in favor of a digital ministry.
A survey by the digital association Bitkom in September showed that 71 percent of those questioned support their own digital department.
jso / AFP