The parties position themselves for the Bundestag election. Follow all developments in the news blog.
The CDU economic politician Friedrich Merz has called on the FDP to exclude a traffic light coalition with the SPD and the Greens in the federal government. The liberals should “articulate more clearly” and say that they are not available for a traffic light, he said on Sunday in the ARD. Merz is part of the eight-person so-called “future team” of Union Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet, with whom he recently started the hot phase of the election campaign.
FDP leader Christian Lindner avoided stipulating in the ARD whether a traffic light coalition would come into question. He is promoting a strong FDP with an independent role. “Our offer is a policy of the center – in view of the flirtations of red-green with the left and also in view of the current weakness of the Union.” But it is also important that the Union is closer to the FDP in the matter than the SPD or the Greens. These stand for openness to expropriation, bureaucracy and redistribution, subsidization and higher taxes. “Now this is not a program that has an intrinsic relationship to our program.”
On an earlier occasion, Lindner had already thought about the allocation of responsibilities in a so-called Jamaica coalition with the Union and the Greens and complained to the Ministry of Finance for the FDP. The FDP boss emphasized in the ARD that this question is not about the “career of individual liberals, but about political content”.
During the ARD interview, Merz caused irritation among viewers. Not because of his request to the FDP, but because he stubbornly refused to name the names of his colleagues from Laschet’s “future team”. Moderator Matthias Deiß asked several times whether Merz could list all the names of the team members, to which the CDU politician did not respond and ultimately replied: “Well, neither of us are going to be silly here. You know the names, I know the names. We have introduced us all together and with these names we will now go into the next three weeks. “
Greens are calling for a speed limit of 130 on motorways
The Greens want to tackle a German issue if they participate in government after the election at the end of September. “For road safety, we need a general safety speed of 130 on motorways in Germany,” says Green Party leader Anton Hofreiter Süddeutsche Zeitung. The Green politician sees a mood trend for such a general speed limit. “The majority of the population, even the members of the ADAC, are in favor,” said Hofreiter in the run-up to the IAA auto show in Munich.
While the SPD and the Left are also in favor of the limit, the Union, FDP and the AfD reject the introduction. Most recently, specialist committees had given up their skepticism. After decades of restraint, the German Road Safety Council is now recommending a speed limit on motorways “in order to sustainably reduce the number of seriously injured and fatalities in road accidents”. The auto industry, however, continues to oppose the plan and is in favor of route-related solutions. M.arkus Balser (05.09.2021)
Youtuber Rezo takes a close look at the parties’ climate policy
Germany’s most famous Youtuber has sharply criticized the grand coalition’s climate policy in his latest video. Get the most criticism in “Destruction part 2“Again politicians of the Union. There are some politicians in the Union of Values who denied man-made climate change, so Rezo in the video. In addition, a large number of politicians have been on the payroll of energy companies such as RWE for years. At the same time, the coal phase-out is clear slower than scientists demanded to meet global climate targets.
The Union’s current candidate for chancellor, Armin Laschet, is also playing a role again. He admitted to having the Hambach Forest evacuated under the pretext of “fire protection”, although there was no legal basis for this. RWE wanted to clear the forest for coal mining, climate protectors had holed up there to prevent this. In the video, Rezo called on people over 50 to vote in favor of the younger generation, who would later suffer most from the consequences of climate policy.
Scholz wants to rule with the Greens
Olaf Scholz, the SPD’s candidate for chancellor, is hoping for a majority in favor of a red-green coalition after the federal elections in view of the rising poll numbers of his party. “I would like to govern together with the Greens,” said the Federal Finance Minister in an interview with the Daily mirror. “We are different parties, we have different objectives, but we have a lot of overlaps.”
At a discussion with Baerbock in Potsdam, Scholz named a statutory minimum wage of twelve euros an hour, rapid changes in the law for a climate-neutral economy and basic child benefits as the most important issues. He sees this in line with the Greens. “That fits well.”
The Greens chief said yes to a government of her two parties, but spoke of a big difference in climate protection: “We don’t need renewable electricity until 2045, we need that by 2030,” said Baerbock. “If we need and want real change, then green has to be at the forefront, because otherwise it is a climate without protection.”
The latest figures from election researchers suggest that a red-green government is actually again within the realm of possibility, but that it would not be feasible at the moment. While the Social Democrats were clearly behind the Union and even behind the Greens in the polls a few weeks ago, they have now not only overtaken the CDU / CSU, but overtaken them. In the latest Insa poll for Picture on sunday the SPD has expanded its lead even further. As the preliminary report of the Sunday trend shows, the Social Democrats come to 25 percent, one percentage point more than last. The CDU / CSU, on the other hand, lose one point and come to 20 percent.
According to the survey, the Greens also give one point, 16 percent of the participants would now vote. The FDP remains unchanged at 13 percent. Approval for the AfD grows by one point to twelve percent, and the left also improves by one point and is now seven percent.
Scholz makes cooperation with the Left Party dependent on whether the party changes its position on a number of points. With a view to the evacuation operation of the German armed forces in Afghanistan, he made severe criticism: “The rejection of the German armed forces rescue decision by the party Die Linke was bad.” In addition, the left still does not meet some of the minimum requirements for a government alliance, such as a clear commitment to NATO, to solid budgets and to the transatlantic partnership. “These requirements are non-negotiable,” said Scholz Daily mirror.
Looking at the left wing of the SPD, Scholz underlined, according to the newspaper, that if he wins the election he will set the course and not change it. There will be no shift to the left sworn by the Union. “Whoever crosses the line with the SPD to get a Chancellor Scholz, can be sure that he will get him exactly as he got to know him in the past few years.” (05.09.2021)