Explorations in Saxony-Anhalt: New style, new alliance?

One month after the state elections in Saxony-Anhalt, the CDU, SPD and FDP are getting closer. What is striking is a new style in the negotiations. But in the end it is probably the money that decides.

It is the first of many days of decision-making. The newly elected state parliament of Saxony-Anhalt met for the first time today, exactly one month after the state elections. The question of which coalition will rule the country in the future is also moving. The CDU, SPD and FDP are still meeting today to sound out in threes for the first time.

Any coalition is not quite correctly named “Germany Coalition”. By the end of this week at the latest, Sven Schulze, head of the CDU region, wants to announce with whom his party wants to start coalition negotiations.

Election winner CDU invites – and has the choice

The surprisingly clear election victory had put the party in a comparatively comfortable position. Instead of having to forge a coalition with the SPD and the rather unloved Greens against a strong AfD, the CDU now has several options: black-red, black-red-yellow or black-yellow-green.

The Greens have only excluded a new edition of the previous “Kenya” coalition. For three weeks now, teams of six negotiators have been exploring; always in the hall of the state investment bank, the building of which is within sight of the state parliament; always at the invitation of the black election winner.

Solutions shown

While the signs in the parties themselves were early on black-red-yellow, the exploratory team around Sven Schulze and Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff continued to look for a solution with the Greens. There was often a problem in the government between them and the CDU. After the exploratory discussion on Friday, it was said that both sides had identified “solutions” for various problems that now had to be discussed internally.

Schulze only made it clear in a subordinate clause how big the problems actually were. Larger than the dispute about the increase in the license fee. At that time the Kenya coalition almost collapsed. No further discussion is currently scheduled with the Greens. A possible cooperation is not completely cleared up, but since the CDU is pushing for a quick decision, the environmental protection party seems to be left out for the time being.

Nervous look at the hole in the budget and the SPD base

With the FDP, however, an agreement was quickly reached. Their economic liberality fits well with the brand essence of the clearly conservative and largely business-oriented CDU state association. The liberals are also unlikely to make costly demands. This is exactly where the crux of the matter with the SPD lies. Because the state finances are clammy.

According to documents from the Ministry of Finance, which the MDR are available, the reserves amount to zero. EU funding will decrease significantly. The State Audit Office calculates for the coming year also with a budget gap of up to 2.5 billion euros.

Money plays a major role in finding a coalition

One question is particularly important for the exploratory and subsequent coalition talks in Saxony-Anhalt: who is the best person to talk to about money? The new state government should therefore be the first to decide on a supplementary budget in order to cope with the consequences of the corona pandemic. In the long term, the Ministry of Finance writes, the hole in the budget can only be closed “on the expenditure side”, in other words: savings must be made.

From the SPD exploratory team it is still said that there is still scope for investment. That was promised on a large scale during the election campaign. Another decisive factor for the Social Democrats is a new procurement law with a minimum wage for all public contracts. It is questionable whether that can be done with the FDP. It is more likely to be about maintaining the status quo.

The SPD is the only party with which a party congress has to decide whether to start negotiations. This is currently scheduled for Friday next week. The soundings are said to have warned against the vote of the SPD base. So it was last reported in the CDU state executive committee.

Parties try a new style

Something new is noticeable on the side: the parties are trying to find a new style. The four exploratory teams have agreed not to disclose the content – and for the most part are sticking to it; also towards one’s own people. The permanent conflict has ceased for the time being. A new player in state politics also stands for this: the strong woman of the FDP, Lydia Hüskens. After ten years of abstinence, she led the liberals back into the state parliament – and there now possibly directly to the government bench.

Hüskens was a member of the state parliament in the early 2000s. She knows how broad negotiations can be in public. How ever new names and demands are traded and so develop their own dynamics. At the latest with the coalition negotiations, it should no longer be possible to prevent this.

Organizing the cabinet is likely to be more difficult than the vow of silence. It is said that Prime Minister Haseloff would like to have more women and more East Germans in his third government. But they are still being sought. His confidante Michael Richter, born in West Berlin and today’s finance and interior minister, is still considered to be set.