Schleswig-Holstein: CDU votes for coalition talks with the Greens

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CDU Prime Minister Daniel Günther with Green Party candidate Monika Heinold

Photo: Daniel Reinhardt / dpa

The three-party government alliance in Schleswig-Holstein will probably become a double: the CDU in Schleswig-Holstein has cleared the way for coalition negotiations with the Greens.

The executive board of the Christian Democrats voted unanimously to start negotiations between the two parties.

A CDU spokesman announced this after the meeting.

In the case of the Greens, a state party conference had already approved the talks with a very large majority on Tuesday evening.

The plan was for the parties' negotiating delegations to meet in a hotel in downtown Kiel on Wednesday afternoon.

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

The CDU had gained significant votes in the election and, with 43.4 percent, had their best result since 1983.

With a record result of 18.3 percent, the Greens became the second strongest force ahead of the SPD, which experienced a historic debacle with a share of the vote of 16 percent.

For a CDU-led government, only one additional partner would have been necessary.

Prime Minister Daniel Günther (CDU) had nevertheless sought to extend the Jamaica alliance with the FDP and the Greens, which has been in power since 2017.

However, the negotiations between the Christian Democrats and the Liberals had already collapsed last Thursday.

Günther wants to form a government within three weeks

Finally, the CDU offered the Greens another exploratory talk.

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

After the soundings ended on Tuesday, Günther announced the goal of forming a government within the next three weeks.

At first it was not foreseeable how quickly the CDU and Greens could come to a coalition agreement and whether it could also become difficult on issues such as internal security or agriculture.

fek/dpa