The FDP and the Greens gave the go-ahead on Tuesday evening. They met without anyone knowing about it in advance, only a selfie published on Instagram testified in retrospect of the meeting. In the coming days, the FDP and the Greens want to speak bilaterally with the two possible big coalition partners. An overview of the further timetable of the explorations.
Who speaks to whom and when?
This one Friday the FDP and the Greens have already met again for talks. The second round of preliminary explorations should focus more specifically on the content and goals of a possible future coalition. The talks take place in a larger group than the first meeting on Tuesday evening, at which only the two Green Party chairmen Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck as well as FDP leader Christian Lindner and the General Secretary of the Liberals, Volker Wissing, negotiated with each other.
At the Sunday the SPD wants to talk to the FDP first, then to the Greens about a possible traffic light coalition. The SPD and the Greens meet before the FDP meets with the Union in the evening. According to CDU General Secretary Paul Ziemiak, the meeting between the Union and the FDP will take place at 6.30 p.m.
At the Tuesday Ziemiak also announced that talks between the Union and the Greens were planned. A Green spokeswoman neither wanted to confirm nor deny that.
Why does the Union only meet with the Greens and the FDP on Sunday?
The reason for the Union’s relatively late entry into the exploratory talks is the CSU. On Friday evening there is a celebration for the former Bavarian Prime Minister and CSU leader Edmund Stoiber on his 80th birthday, at which Laschet is expected in addition to Söder. On Saturday, Söder has several CSU committee meetings in the district associations in the calendar. According to information from the German Press Agency, Söder announced early that he would not be available for exploratory talks on both days. The Bavarian Prime Minister offered Thursday, Friday during the day or Sunday for possible discussions. The FDP had proposed talks with the Union for Saturday.
Who takes part in the talks for the individual parties?
the CDU According to General Secretary Ziemiak, a ten-person team will go into explorations with the FDP and the Greens. These include party leader Armin Laschet, Ziemiak himself, parliamentary group leader Ralph Brinkhaus, the Hessian Prime Minister Volker Bouffier, his Saxon-Anhalt colleague Reiner Haseloff, the Schleswig-Holstein head of government Daniel Günther, the Baden-Württemberg interior minister Thomas Strobl, the party prices Julia Klöckner and Silvia Breher and Health Minister Jens Spahn.
the CSU sends in addition to party leader Markus Söder also CSU regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt, general secretary Markus Blume, CSU vice Dorothee Bär and the parliamentary manager of the regional group, Stefan Müller, in the talks.
the SPD wants to conduct the exploratory talks with a team consisting of Chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz, party leaders Saskia Esken and Norbert Walter-Borjans, parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich, the Rhineland-Palatinate Prime Minister Malu Dreyer and Secretary General Lars Klingbeil.
Also for them FDP A ten-person team negotiates in the preliminary meetings: party and parliamentary group leader Christian Lindner, the party indexes Johannes Vogel and Nicola Beer, general secretary Volker Wissing, the first parliamentary managing director Marco Buschmann, the parliamentary managing director Bettina Stark-Watzinger, parliamentary group vice Michael Theurer, the state chairwoman in Saxony -Anhalt, Lydia Hüskens, Federal Treasurer Harald Christ and MEP Moritz Körner. According to the party, Körner will withdraw when Party Vice-President Wolfgang Kubicki has recovered after a minor operation.
the Greens have announced to send the following exploratory team for further discussions: the two party leaders Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck, the parliamentary group leaders Katrin Göring-Eckardt and Anton Hofreiter, the first parliamentary manager Britta Haßelmann, federal manager Michael Kellner, Ricarda Lang from the federal executive committee, the European politician Sven Giegold and the previous Vice President of the Bundestag Claudia Roth.
How do the parties assess the status of the negotiations?
SPD-Chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz has repeatedly emphasized during the election campaign that he would favor an alliance with the Greens. Now the election result was not enough for a two-party alliance. Since the left did not get enough votes to enable a red-red-green coalition, a government with the FDP and the Greens would be the only possibility for Scholz to become chancellor – apart from a renewed grand coalition, which no party currently wants . In an interview with the mirrors Scholz reaffirms his confidence that a traffic light coalition will come about. When asked whether he would become chancellor after the negotiations with the Greens and FDP, Scholz said: “Yes.” He also campaigned for a coalition in which “real affection” can arise. “I am optimistic that a traffic light coalition can succeed,” said Scholz.
As much as Scholz makes no secret of his preference for a traffic light coalition, they do Greens so far made no secret of their skepticism towards a Jamaica alliance. But also for the exploration with the SPD and FDP, the Green parliamentary group leader Katrin Göring-Eckardt expects tough negotiations. Nobody should pretend “as if we are already throwing cotton balls at each other,” she said on Thursday in the ZDF program “Maybrit Illner”.
According to Göring-Eckardt, there could be difficult discussions, especially when it comes to climate policy. She referred to the negotiations on the CO₂ price. “Those were the most blatant negotiations and the one who stood in the way of being ambitious was Olaf Scholz.” Finding a common path in climate policy is just as difficult with the SPD as the discussion about “other ideas” of the FDP on regulatory policy.
With regard to the Union, Göring-Eckardt doubts its ability to negotiate. She told the newspapers of the Funke media group: “I don’t see at the moment that the Union could be considered capable of exploring, let alone capable of governing.”
Also in the FDP some consider the internal state of the Union to be questionable. Because of the signs of disintegration in the Union, FDP Deputy Chief Wolfgang Kubicki sees a Jamaica coalition with skepticism. “At the moment we are looking at what is happening at the Union with big children’s eyes,” says Kubicki RTL and n-tv. “It crumbles from hour to hour. And if you no longer have a sensible contact person, no strong man or no strong woman, who do you want to negotiate with and what?” But coalition options will also be examined with the Union and an invitation to talks will be accepted. However, the FDP leadership has emphasized several times that it would still prefer a Jamaica alliance, as it has more in common with the Union than with the SPD.
For the union a Jamaica coalition would be the only way to stay in power. Although the CDU and CSU received fewer votes than the SPD, representatives of the Union parties argue with a responsibility for Germany, which would at least result in the possibility of both parties participating in the government. CDU Federal Vice and Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Deutschlandfunk: “Opposition just out of frustration, that can’t be the answer now.” A coalition of the Union, FDP and Greens would have the chance to resolve long unresolved conflicts, for example on climate protection, agriculture and migration. “A bourgeois-ecological-liberal government would be better for our country than a traffic light.” When asked whether CDU boss Armin Laschet had to go, Spahn said: “The question does not arise at this point in time.”
Other representatives of the Union parties expressed themselves very skeptically about the possible formation of a Jamaica alliance. “The probability that there will be a traffic light is not only obvious, but is very large,” said Union parliamentary group vice Carsten Linnemann on Friday in the ARD “Morgenmagazin” https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/. “The SPD won the election “, that has to be admitted. In the event that the SPD, the Greens and the FDP cannot agree, he considers a Jamaica alliance under the leadership of the Union to be possible. But the ball lies with the SPD, “not with us,” said Linnemann.
That CSU-The Presidium prepared the upcoming exploratory talks in a meeting this Friday. Afterwards, CSU General Secretary Markus Blume said they wanted to “go into these exploratory talks in a good spirit”. The CSU is ready for Jamaica. That means that one is “ready for quick discussions, for compact and, above all, very focused discussions”. The focus must be on making sure that you get good results quickly and purposefully. It is not the secondary tones that are decisive, you want to concentrate on what you want to achieve, says Blume. “Jamaica is an opportunity, Jamaica has an opportunity, Jamaica has charm too.”
Even FDP and Green have announced statements for the afternoon after their further talks this Friday.
With material from the news agencies Reuters and dpa