Berlin A few more weeks, then the CDU Prime Ministers Daniel Günther and Hendrik Wüst should lead new governments in Kiel and Düsseldorf. The Liberals are no longer very popular as partners, in contrast to the Greens.
Should the negotiations on the Rhine and Waterkant succeed, the CDU would govern in four federal states alone with the Greens. No alliance would be so widespread, neither black-yellow nor red-green.
The traffic light is still only in Rhineland-Palatinate – and in the federal government. Red-Red-Green rule in three states (Berlin, Bremen, Thuringia). Black and green should characterize the most populous federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia in the future. Is there a trend towards the 2025 federal elections?
Bonn political scientist Volker Kronenberg confirms that the election results indicate that economic policy competence and ecological renewal should go hand in hand. “So what would correspond more to the current zeitgeist than the combination of exactly these two fields of competence in a coalition?”
Both milieus have converged, the Greens are “bourgeoisized”, for the CDU the “preservation of creation” counts. Even if there are “stumbling blocks”: People want the “moderating power of the middle” for renewal.
Lower Saxony: Black and green is an option
Leading CDU politicians react accordingly positively. “Black-Green is no longer exotic, but a tried and tested alliance,” says party Vice President Andreas Jung, referring to the alliance’s second reign in Hesse and in his homeland of Baden-Württemberg.
If two more black-green governments were added to the Bundesrat, “then that would make a more in-depth dialogue about the boundaries between government and opposition necessary. This not only strengthens the political culture, it should also lead to politically and socially broadly anchored decisions that last for a long time.”
In fact, black-green and black-green-red states would represent 29 of the 69 votes in the state chamber. If Lower Saxony were added in the fall, it would already be the majority with 35 votes.
No wonder that the Lower Saxony CDU top candidate Bernd Althusmann recognizes a “previously hardly conceivable change of course by the Greens due to the crisis”. People expected pragmatic solutions “without denying reality and sticking to ideological party inventory”.
The CDU and the Greens agree to live climate-neutrally by 2045. “Even if there are differences in the way to get there: If the Greens continue their pragmatic course, they would be a conceivable option for a joint government with the Union,” says Althusmann.
For the younger party members like Nadine Schön from Saarland, the alliance is already a model for the future: “For me it is important that we implement the ecological transformation with innovation and economic expertise,” says the deputy leader of the parliamentary group in the Bundestag. In addition, it is important in terms of foreign policy “that we define Germany’s role in the world with self-confidence and position ourselves clearly. I see a lot of similarities with the Greens in both.”
Wiebke Winter from Bremen, member of the Federal Executive Board and co-founder of the Climate Union, adds: “At the same time, these alliances provide the necessary awareness of the rights and security of the individual.”
>> Read also: 1000 new wind turbines and more money for teachers: CDU and Greens in North Rhine-Westphalia are heading towards a coalition
In Hamburg, where there was the first black-green alliance at state level in 2008, the current chairman Christoph Ploß recognizes “a black-green zeitgeist that should not be ignored. It is important, however, that the CDU does not adopt every green-black compromise, but continues to stand by its convictions.
His Hamburg party friend, member of the Federal Executive Franziska Hoppermann, points to the connection between economy and ecology: “Only in this way will we be able to find answers to the major issues of the future.”
There are doubts about the Greens in the Eastern CDU
But there are also critical voices. Especially in the east, the current development is not considered a “blueprint”, as Thuringia’s regional head Mario Voigt states. “The Greens are too far removed from the problems of people outside of the big cities for that.”
Others criticize the decision in Kiel not to form a coalition with the FDP. “Can it be our aim to throw convictions overboard just to keep the opposition at bay and thus secure the next state election?” asks a member of the CDU federal executive board.
Pragmatism appears to be widespread on both sides. The CDU, for example, has spoken out in favor of a lower wage limit of twelve euros that is set by law and not by the collective bargaining parties. The Greens, on the other hand, are prepared to dispense with the environmental impact assessment for central transport projects such as the dilapidated Rahmedetalbrücke on the A45.
“We noticed how pragmatic the top candidate was,” says CDU member of the Bundestag Florian Müller about Mona Neubaur, North Rhine-Westphalia leader of the Greens. The CDU also needs new partners, says Müller. “The people’s parties have to fight for 30 percent and are happy when there is more.”
And so the credo of black-green in the most populous federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia is now: “climate-neutral industrial state”. From the point of view of the head of the NRW deputy of the CDU in the Bundestag, Günter Krings, black-green alliances can “function well and reliably. But of course they are also due to the current election arithmetic.”
As a precaution, he warns and refers to the lessons of the past grand coalitions in the federal government: “We must not chain ourselves to one party, but must remain open to various options, of which the FDP expressly belongs.”
More: How Hendrik Wüst wants to convince the Greens.