Germany edges towards centre-left coalition as three-way talks agreed
THE Social Democrat (SPD) candidate to be Germany’s new chancellor, Olaf Scholz, expressed delight on Wednesday at planned three-way exploratory talks with the Free Democrats (FDP) and the Greens on forming a centreleft coalition government.
Saying that Germans had given the SPD a mandate to form a government, Scholz warned that progress was at stake. Economic and industrial modernization and the fight against climate needed to be addressed, he said.
“That is what we will now discuss with each other, and tomorrow we’ll get started.” Members of the centre-right CDU/CSU bloc - currently the senior party in the ruling coalition - seemed resigned to losing power.
Markus Soeder, head of the Christian Social Union (CSU), deemed the decision by the Greens and FDP to enter tripartite talks with the SPD as a “de facto rejection of Jamaica,” the term used in Germany to describe a threeway alliance of the CDU/ CSU, Greens and FDP, based on the party’s representative colours.
Soeder spoke of a “clear preliminary decision” having been made, and the need for the conservative bloc to face reality. Admitting there would very probably be a government without the CDU/ CSU was important, he said, but also a matter of “self-respect and dignity.”
The reaction from senior figures in Germany’s two main parties came following the Greens and the FDP signalling they were ready to join three-way talks with the SPD about forming a coalition, bringing Germany a small step closer to having a new government after elections last month.
The elections left it unclear as to which parties could command a majority in parliament, and prompted a urry of coalition talks between the parties hoping for a seat in the next cabinet.
“We have accepted the proposal of talks with the SPD,” FDP party leader Christian Lindner said in Berlin on Wednesday, shortly after a similar statement from the Greens’ Annalena Baerbock.
The FDP would only enter a centrist government that strengthened the “value of freedom” and provided a real impetus for the renewal of the country, Lindner said, adding that liberal policies were what counted.
Baerbock said that her party had “come to the conclusion that it makes sense to continue to talk in depth with the FDP and the SPD, especially in view of the common ground that we have been able to establish in these bilateral talks.”
With regard to a possible three-party coalition of the SPD, the Green Party and the FDP, the Greens’ co-chair Robert Habeck said that the individual meetings over the past few days had shown “that the greatest overlaps in terms of policy content are conceivable there.” This applied above all to social policy, he said.
The SPD emerged from September’s election as the largest party in the Bundestag. But it only took 25.7 per cent of the vote, meaning it needs the support of other parties to form a government.
After the FDP and Greens’ announcements, Scholz, is emerging as the front-runner to become the next chancellor.