Negotiations on black-green coalition have started

Created: 05/25/2022, 14:44

Daniel Günther (CDU), Prime Minister of Schleswig-Holstein, makes a statement.

© Daniel Reinhardt/dpa/archive image

Two and a half weeks after the state elections, the CDU and the Greens in Schleswig-Holstein began negotiations on a joint coalition.

"Now we're looking forward to bringing something big together in the next three weeks," said Prime Minister Daniel Günther (CDU) on Wednesday in Kiel.

You go into the talks with great respect and well prepared.

Kiel – The two parties completed their explorations on Tuesday.

A party conference of the Greens and the executive CDU state executive then voted to start negotiations.

The Greens were also confident.

"I'm going in with a good feeling now because we're well prepared," said Finance Minister and Greens' top candidate Monika Heinold.

Your co-lead candidate Aminata Touré emphasized that you are in good spirits and are going into the negotiations "with a totally blatant respect".

In addition to Prime Minister Günther, the CDU negotiating delegation includes Education Minister Karin Prien, Interior Minister Sabine Sütterlin-Waack and the parliamentary group leader Tobias Koch.

The green negotiating team consists of the state executive of the party, the first on the list for state elections and members of the Bundestag and the European Parliament.

It was initially not foreseeable how quickly the CDU and Greens could come to a coalition agreement.

The meeting on Wednesday is more of a preparatory meeting so that the negotiations can run smoothly, said Günther.

Among other things, the composition of the working groups and the exact timetable would have to be clarified.

It is not yet possible to say where possible difficulties lie.

"I think it would be too early to speculate about it now." Günther had set the goal of forming a government within the next three weeks.

In the state elections on May 8, the CDU missed an absolute majority in the state parliament by just one seat.

Günther initially tried to enable the Jamaica coalition of the CDU, Greens and FDP, which has been in power since 2017, to continue.

However, the Greens and FDP could not agree on this during exploratory talks.

Only one of the two partners is needed to form a government.

In the further course, the CDU offered the Greens another exploratory talk and coalition negotiations as a result.

Together, the CDU and the Greens have a two-thirds majority in the state parliament.

dpa