SCHOLZ PARTY TO OKAY GOVT DEAL IN GERMANY

Berlin, Dec. 4: The centre-left party of German Chancellor-designate Olaf Scholz is meeting Saturday to decide whether to approve a deal to form a new government with environmentalist and pro-business parties, the first of three such decisions needed for Scholz to take office next week.

Scholz’s Social Democrats narrowly won Germany’ September 26 election and launched negotiations with the Greens and the business-friendly Free Democrats to form a governing coalition that hasn’t been tried before at the federal level.

They emerged with a deal on November 24 after relatively quick negotiations. The three-way alliance aims to modernise Europe’s biggest economy and step-up efforts against climate change. It will send outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel’s centre-right Union bloc into opposition after 16 years and end an uncomfortable “grand coalition” of Germany’s traditional big parties in which the Social Democrats were the junior partners.

The plan is for Scholz to be elected as chancellor on Wednesday and to lead what has been called a “traffic light” coalition after the parties’ colours of red, green and yellow. Before that can happen, members of the parties need to approve the coalition deal. The Social Democrats are holding a convention on Saturday and the Free Democrats have one scheduled for Sunday. The result of a ballot of the Greens’ roughly 1,25,000-strong membership is expected on Monday.

Key pledges by the prospective partners include an increase in Germany’s minimum wage to 12 euros ($13.50) per hour from the current 9.60 euros — a move that Scholz has said “means a wage increase for 10 million citizens.”

And they also aim to get 4,00,000 new apartments per year built in an effort to curb rising rental prices.

Unlike the other two, the Social Democrats haven’t yet named their remaining Cabinet nominees, who will include the interior, defence and health ministers.