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BERLIN — Leaders of Germany’s Social Democrats, Greens and liberals clinched a deal Wednesday to form the country’s next government with Olaf Scholz as chancellor.
The new alliance will bring the curtain down on 16 years of conservative-led government under Angela Merkel, who did not run for another term in September’s general election. It is also something of an experiment: The trio of parties has never governed Germany together before and the country is used to two partners, rather than three, running the federal government.
The 63-year-old Scholz, finance minister in Merkel’s outgoing coalition, led the Social Democrats (SPD) to victory in the election as their candidate for chancellor. That put him in pole position to lead the next government, provided he could seal a coalition with the Greens and Free Democrats (FDP).
At a press conference in Berlin on Wednesday, leaders of the three parties announced they had reached agreement and unveiled a coalition pact running to more than 170 pages. Provided it is approved by the wider parties in the coming days, the next government should take office early next month.
The coalition deal aims to combine the main priorities of the different parties. It aims to raise the country’s minimum wage, as championed by Scholz and the SPD, and to please Greens by phasing out coal power by 2030, eight years earlier than previously planned. It also pledges to maintain fiscal discipline, a cause pushed by the FDP.
But the new government will take office in the midst of crisis, with coronavirus cases rising rapidly across Germany. Scholz acknowledged as much right at the start of the press conference.
“We still haven’t defeated corona. Day after day we are racing to new records,” he told reporters.
Scholz said the new government would ramp up the national coronavirus vaccination campaign and consider making shots compulsory for health staff and other essential workers.
“We must vaccinate and give booster shots to prevent the spread of the virus,” he said. “Vaccination is the way out of this pandemic.”
The coalition pact brings to an end nearly five weeks of formal negotiations, involving roughly 300 negotiators hammering out policy positions across 22 working groups. The teams worked behind closed doors, with party leaders repeatedly refusing to publicly reveal much about the talks.
From the beginning, the SPD, Greens and FDP — known as the traffic-light coalition, due to their respective colors of red, green and yellow — strove to appear civilized and optimistic at all times, attempting to contrast their talks with the messy and ill-fated 2017 coalition talks between Merkel’s conservatives, the Greens and the FDP.
Their efforts to put on a united front even led to some mockery in the German media, especially after leaders of the Greens and the FDP posted a selfie to demonstrate their team spirit.
But the peace generally held, even though the FDP and Greens have never been considered natural allies, given the FPD’s free-market, low-tax ideology and the Greens’ focus on the environment and social equality.
Not always smooth sailing
However, some disagreements did emerge from the talks.
Earlier this month, the Greens complained of a lack of ambition in the coalition’s climate policies, prompting them to put pressure on the SPD and FDP. That logjam broke on Tuesday when the three parties agreed to phase out coal by 2030.
Meanwhile, FDP leader Christian Lindner is expected to become the new finance minister, a key requirement for selling any deal to the liberals’ base. Giving Lindner that post amounts to a significant compromise by the Greens, given their advocacy for looser fiscal rules in Europe.
In return, the Greens are expected to be rewarded with two major ministries for their own leaders, Robert Habeck and Annalena Baerbock. Habeck is in line for a new economy and climate ministry while Baerbock is expected to take over the foreign ministry.
Before oaths of office can be taken, the deal will first be put to the wider parties for consideration. The Greens plan to consult their members about the pact, while the SPD will vote on it at an extraordinary party conference scheduled for December 4. The FDP plans to do the same at a party conference on December 5.
If all parties approve, they will be done in time to have Scholz elected as chancellor in the week starting December 6, sticking to the parties’ intended timeline — and just days before Merkel would overtake Helmut Kohl to become the country’s longest-serving post-war chancellor on December 17.
Nette Nöslinger, Douglas Busvine and Merlin Sugue contributed reporting.
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2021-11-24 16:15:29Z
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