Federal election 2025
Söder is relying on a coalition with the SPD and Pistorius
For CSU leader Markus Söder, Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) could become the new strong man for the Social Democrats in the post-Scholz era. photo
© Peter Kneffel/dpa
The CSU leader can imagine a new coalition between the Union and the SPD – albeit without Chancellor Scholz. That would affect the Greens and the FDP. Their reaction is not long in coming.
The CSU chairman Markus Söder has called for a new edition of the grand coalition of the Union and SPD after the 2025 federal election – and received sharp criticism from the traffic light parties. “If you look at the central areas of politics, from economic to foreign policy to migration policy, then you know: You can’t make a state with the Greens and you can’t make a state with Olaf Scholz either,” the Bavarian Prime Minister told the “Welt on Sunday”. If the current polls remain the same, Scholz will lose the election. “Then there will be an SPD without Scholz.”
For Söder, the incumbent Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) could then become the new strong man for the Social Democrats. With him “as a junior partner, more can be imagined,” emphasized Söder. “In any case, we don’t want black and green.”
The Greens and FDP reject Groko’s proposal
Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck immediately rejected the proposal. “Of course, there are a lot of problems, but the Groko is not the answer to the problems, it is the cause of the problems that Germany has,” said the Green politician at the “taz lab 2024” congress in Berlin. Green Party leader Ricarda Lang said the same thing: “But Söder doesn’t care because he only cares about one thing: his ego,” she wrote on the X platform (formerly Twitter).
Criticism also came from FDP chairman Christian Lindner: “If Markus Söder says today that the future perspective for Germany is a new grand coalition, then I am reminding you of the results of the last grand coalition,” said the Federal Finance Minister at the Liberal party conference in Berlin.
Habeck said: “All the problems we have at the moment are problems that the grand coalition left us, all problems.” In 2022, the gas storage facilities were empty, Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin was misjudged, Ukraine had no real European perspective, and the energy transition was not making progress. The grand coalition also did nothing to combat the labor shortage and there was no sensible immigration policy.
“It’s all because the Groko didn’t address the problems. And within the Groko, the biggest problem bear was the CSU.” The fact that the grand coalition should now be the answer to questions about the future is a “money to history in federal politics.” And the fact that the CSU, of all people, which is responsible for the immigration toll, the most expensive possible network expansion and the prevention of any constructive politics, “dares to say how this country should be governed can only be tolerated with humor,” said Habeck.
He does not expect the coalition to end early
Söder does not expect the ruling traffic light coalition to break up prematurely. “Based on the current political situation, it is likely that the traffic light will last until the end. The FDP has the biggest problem of all, because it is in a credibility crisis,” he told “Welt am Sonntag”. Unless something unexpected happened, the SPD, Greens and FDP would continue to govern. “For Germany, this means another lost year. The traffic lights will no longer be able to solve any problems. The traffic lights are the problem.”