The explorers have agreed to negotiate a traffic light coalition.
(Photo: Reuters)
Berlin “It actually worked,” said SPD Chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz on Friday after long explorations for a traffic light alliance with the Greens and the FDP. The traffic light parties negotiated on Thursday evening until late in the day.
The result is a joint paper that now serves as the basis for coalition negotiations. “And that is actually a very good result,” said Scholz. Scholz named the modernization of the state and climate protection as key points.
A massive expansion of renewable energies is needed, “that’s what we have planned together,” announced Scholz. “It will be the largest industrial modernization project that Germany has carried out in 100 years,” he said. In addition, it is about social issues such as housing, a stable pension for the coming years.
FDP leader Christian Lindner praised the course of the negotiations. “The style alone marks a turning point in Germany’s political culture,” he said. The seriousness of the talks alone gave many people hopes for a new departure. Now there is a chance to bring the country together as a whole. The result is not a formula compromise, but clear directional decisions.
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Lindner emphasized that there are prospects for relief, for example in the area of electricity costs. In addition, there is a concept for the de-bureaucratisation of the country and a “new start for social advancement”. The paper also contains a commitment to the debt brake. For a long time there was no comparable opportunity for modernization as there is now.
The Green Chancellor candidate Annalena Baerbock called “trustful talks” as the basis for reaching an agreement. She spoke of intensive conversations last night into the morning. The next decade will be a “decade of renewal.”
Twelve pages as starting points for coalition negotiations
The explorers have summarized their ideas on twelve pages. All three parties each brought home a number of crucial trophies. The SPD has enforced a minimum wage of twelve euros, a fixation of the pension level at 48 percent and the abolition of Hartz-IV, which is to be replaced by a “citizen’s money”. The traffic light also wants to create more affordable living space.
The Greens had success with their demand for an earlier coal exit. This should now “ideally succeed by 2030”, it says in the paper. In addition, all suitable roof areas are to be used for solar energy in the future. A basic child benefit will also be introduced. The Greens – like the SPD – insisted on this. In addition, social policy is to be liberalized, such as citizenship law or the transsexual law.
The FDP, in turn, can claim to fulfill its role as a “free market corrective” in a traffic light. For example, there will be no speed limit, no citizens’ insurance and no tax increases, which the SPD and the Greens will be pushed for, but which the FDP had rejected.
Instead, companies should benefit from so-called “super depreciation”. Start-ups are also challenged to a greater extent through better employee participation. There is also to be an entry into a “partial funded coverage” of the statutory pension insurance and the previous system of private old-age provision is to be fundamentally rebuilt.
Coalition negotiations soon
Today’s exploratory round marked the end of intensive discussions between the traffic light parties. The committees of the Greens and FDP had already discussed the results so far on Friday morning.
In the morning, the expanded 24-person exploratory team of the Greens met, followed by the party council. The decision has to be made by a small party congress. At the FDP, the federal board was informed about the results of the talks at noon and wants to vote on Monday.
The presented paper serves as the basis for possible coalition negotiations, which represent the next step on the way to a traffic light alliance. Both SPD General Secretary Lars Klingbeil and Chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz had already expressed confidence on Wednesday that the formation of a traffic light government could move forward quickly at the federal level. In the FDP one expressed itself more cautiously.
The defense policy spokeswoman for the FDP parliamentary group, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, now expects a federal government by Christmas. “I am optimistic that we – in whatever color constellations – will have a new federal government at Christmas,” she told RTL / ntv.
The CDU Economic Council called on the FDP, meanwhile, to press for a tax moratorium in the traffic light negotiations with the SPD and the Greens. Corporations should pay a maximum of 25 percent tax, partnerships should be put on an equal footing with them, according to a position paper on tax policy.
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