Status: 16.10.2021 6:02 p.m.
The SPD, Greens and FDP have sounded out – now the official approval of the Greens and FDP for coalition negotiations is still missing. While those involved continue to spread optimism, a personnel debate is emerging.
After the explorations between the SPD, the Greens and the FDP on the possible formation of a traffic light coalition, some content-related gaps between the parties have been bridged for the time being – and the parties are spreading confidence that the desired formation of a government will succeed.
SPD chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz relies on a long-term perspective for a traffic light alliance with the Greens and the FDP. “We don’t just want to conduct professional traffic light negotiations now, we also want to govern so well together that we will be re-elected,” Scholz wrote on Twitter. That will succeed if the future federal government shows the citizens: “There is a new beginning, they are making the right decisions for our future.” On Friday evening Scholz had in the daily topics reiterated the goal of having a new government formed by Christmas.
“We have built trust”
Green co-leader Robert Habeck was also confident about the formation of a government. He said on Friday evening on ZDF that a failure of the coalition negotiations “would really be a surprise”. He no longer assumes that. But there are still a few conflicts.
The Rhineland-Palatinate Prime Minister Malu Dreyer (SPD) told the “Handelsblatt”: “In the explorations we created the basic requirements for a traffic light coalition: We have built trust.” Government formation is always a give and take, said Dreyer, who herself leads a traffic light alliance in Rhineland-Palatinate. “All in all, we were able to achieve a lot of what we set out to do before the election.”
The leaders of the SPD, Greens and FDP presented a joint paper on Friday on the outcome of their exploratory talks and called for coalition negotiations. There is criticism of the paper particularly when it comes to the question of how the projects outlined in it are to be financed. The SPD executive committee voted unanimously for negotiations on Friday. For the Greens, a small party conference is to decide this Sunday, the FDP leadership then on Monday.
FDP promotes Lindner as finance minister
As expected, leading FDP politicians advertised their party leader Christian Lindner as Federal Minister of Finance even before the official decision of their party committees to start coalition negotiations. The parliamentary managing director of the FDP parliamentary group, Marco Buschmann, named Lindner as a favorite for the finance department. He couldn’t imagine anyone better for this job, said Buschmann to “Spiegel”.
The deputy chairman Wolfgang Kubicki also made it clear that he considered Lindner to be the ideal candidate. “Anyone who has doubts that everything will succeed – the financing of the project without a tax increase and without new debts – must want Christian Lindner to become finance minister in order to document that it works. Otherwise the FDP would have the cake in its face.” he told him NDR. However, so far neither the division of departments nor the division of departments has been discussed. Kubicki said that whoever occupies it should only be decided at the end of the negotiations. The SPD and the Greens have not yet made any public statements on personnel issues.
“It is possible”
Kubicki also expressed optimism that the negotiations with the SPD and the Greens will succeed. Negotiating the details on the basis of the exploratory paper will not be easy, but “it is feasible,” said the FDP politician. “I have such a good mood, such a good approach, professional, not seen in the last few years and decades.”
FDP General Secretary Volker Wissing emphasized in a conversation with the “Rheinische Post” the value of the interim results so far after the explorations. “We have made clear directional decisions that now give us the chance to modernize society, the economy and the state,” said Wissing.