FDP votes for coalition agreement – Scholz is to be elected chancellor on Wednesday

Berlin At the moment everything looks like Germany will get a new federal government in the next few days. At their extraordinary party congresses at the weekend, the SPD and FDP decided to approve the 177-page coalition agreement.

The result of the member survey of the Greens is to be presented on Monday. If this vote is positive, all three parties want to sign the contract on Tuesday. The election of Olaf Scholz (SPD) for chancellor in the Bundestag is scheduled for Wednesday.

Scholz has already achieved success on the way to chancellorship: On Saturday, the 600 voting delegates of the SPD voted with a clear majority of 98.8 percent for the coalition agreement with the Greens and FDP. On Sunday, the FDP followed suit and approved the traffic light agreement. At both party congresses, only the top politicians were present due to the corona, while discussions and voting on the agreements took place digitally.

In his speech in Berlin, FDP party leader Christian Lindner defended the liberals’ decision to join a coalition with the SPD instead of the Union as a senior partner. “The exploratory talks have shown that the Union parties have lost their inner center,” explained Lindner.

The talks with the Greens and the SPD, however, were characterized by a special confidentiality. Above all, the designated Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz was able to “combine divisions in a meaningful way”, explained Lindner.

The party leader wanted to advertise not only for the coalition agreement, but above all for the forged alliance shortly before the liberal vote. Because despite such a contract, “the great challenges of a government cannot be foreseen at all,” said Lindner. In times of crisis it would depend on the trust of the governing parties, which has so far proven to be resilient.

While Lindner spoke out against participation in government in 2017 with the words “It is better not to govern than to govern wrongly”, he stated on Sunday: “Today we can say: It is better to dare to venture into this coalition than to forego design opportunities. ”

The other three designated FDP ministers, Bettina Stark-Watzinger, Volker Wissing and Marco Buschmann, also campaigned for approval of the coalition agreement. The appeals of the party leadership were heard: 92 percent of the delegates voted for acceptance, 6.4 percent against, the rest abstained.

Chancellor election in St. Nicholas week

So it looks like the traffic light parties will keep the promise made in mid-November to swear in a new government during St. Nicholas Week. However, it has not yet been finally clarified who will be sitting at the new cabinet table. There are still a few names missing for social democratic ministerial posts – the party will officially announce these on Monday.

Some personal details, however, have already been determined in the SPD. The head of the chancellery will be Scholz’s confidante Wolfgang Schmidt, the building minister will be Svenja Schulze, and the interior minister Christine Lambrecht. Hubertus Heil as Federal Minister of Labor should also be set, even if some in the SPD recently speculated that he could also take over the Ministry of Defense. The SPD is also allowed to occupy the Ministry for Development Cooperation.

The party-internal personnel issues also seem to have been largely clarified. Former Juso chairman Kevin Kühnert will take over the office of general secretary. He inherits Lars Klingbeil, who is applying for the party chairmanship. Kühnert is considered to be left in the SPD and in 2017 had raised the mood against the SPD’s entry into a grand coalition.

The most controversial debate among the Social Democrats takes place above all over the office of Minister of Health. Recently, the number of voices that the SPD health expert Karl Lauterbach would like to have in the office, which has become a kind of top pandemic declarer in the corona crisis, has increased.

However, Lauterbach has had a difficult time in the SPD since his failed candidacy for party chairmanship in 2019. Lauterbach vehemently railed against the grand coalition and his own party and smashed a lot of china. Many in the SPD consider him too unpredictable and too disloyal to take on the job that is so important in times of crisis.

Outside of the debate about ministerial posts, the Social Democrats are currently facing a number of personnel issues. According to previously unconfirmed reports by “Bild am Sonntag”, the former party chairman Andrea Nahles is to take over the management of the Federal Employment Agency. It would succeed the current chairman, Detlef Scheele, who is leaving office in April.

Debate about the office of Federal President

The re-election of Frank Walter Steinmeier (SPD) as Federal President, which is to take place in February 2022, is also causing discussions. The North Rhine-Westphalian Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) spoke out in the “Welt am Sonntag” for a woman as the new head of state. “We will soon have a chancellor who will be represented by two men,” criticized Wüst. There are also supporters of the traffic light parties who would have liked more diversity in this regard.

He wanted to initiate a debate in the Union, to set up a candidate against Steinmeier, said Wüst. However, he did not give a specific name. In the first electoral period of 2017, the Union supported Steinmeier’s election. The Federal President is elected by the Federal Assembly, which meets for this purpose only.

Half of it consists of members of the Bundestag and half of the electorate who are sent by the state parliaments. While the Union may send most of these electors in 2022, the traffic light parties still have a majority in the Federal Assembly as a whole.

As a member of the traffic light coalition, the Greens also want to be the last to approve the coalition agreement and government participation in the coming week. The vote of the 125,000 members, who have been able to vote on the agreement since November 25, is expected on Monday.

In the eco-party, the displeasure with the coalition agreement and the allocation of the ministries had recently been greatest. Above all, the fact that the transport department had gone to the FDP had caused criticism. Volker Wissing (FDP), as the new Minister of Transport for the Greens, was infected when he promised to offset the additional burden of higher energy taxes on diesel with lower vehicle taxes. Despite the criticism, the Green Youth had spoken out in favor of approving the coalition agreement with the FDP and SPD.

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