The negotiators from the CDU and SPD in Hesse have agreed on a coalition agreement. The document was sent late on Wednesday evening and is now available South German newspaper before. In the draft, the two parties agree on stricter measures in the area of migration, more police positions or an investment program for the expansion of daycare centers. The so-called Hessengeld should also come. The coalition wants to support the first owner-occupied home with 10,000 euros per buyer and 5,000 euros per child.
In addition, both parties are committed to a new style of cooperation. “We do not make old compromises,” says the foreword, which is entitled “One for all”. Instead, the CDU and SPD want to overcome supposed contradictions such as “freedom and security, economic power and climate protection” or “tradition and progress”. Unlike the exploratory paper, there is no longer any talk of a “Christian-social coalition” but of a “democratic-Christian-social coalition”. The term “Christian-Social” for the alliance between the CDU and SPD sometimes provoked ridicule because it was more reminiscent of the CSU’s party name, the Christian-Social Union.
Another excitement from the exploratory paper made it into the coalition agreement: the gender ban. The CDU and SPD want to “stipulate that gendering with special characters is avoided in public administration and other state and public institutions.” This refers to schools, universities and broadcasting. In the future, the “use of the so-called gender language” will be abandoned and instead the Council for German Spelling will be used as a guide. He reiterated in the summer that so-called internal word symbols, such as the gender star, are not “part of the core of German orthography”.
The negotiators also agreed on the introduction of a payment card for refugees. In dialogue with the municipalities, the new coalition aims to “ensure that refugees no longer receive monetary payments”. The initial reception centers in the state of Hesse should switch to payment cards instead of benefits in kind and pocket money.
The distribution of the ministries was probably negotiated until the very end. But their cutting and division can now also be found in the paper. Accordingly, seven departments plus the State Chancellery with its boss and a minister for the federal government and Europe will go to the CDU, including a separate ministry for agriculture and the environment, viticulture, forestry, hunting and homeland. In addition, the CDU can count on important state political institutions such as finance, internal affairs and education. The SPD, on the other hand, is allowed to send three ministers to the cabinet table. It will have a Ministry for Economic Affairs, Energy, Transport, Housing and Rural Areas. A department with a focus on labor and social affairs as well as the ministry for science, research, art and culture.
The Greens already suspected the first dispute
It was originally expected that the negotiators would be able to agree on an agreement earlier. However, a meeting of the top group of both parties was planned for Wednesday afternoon. The Hessian Greens therefore already suspected that the new consensus between the CDU and SPD might not be that great after all. The fact that there is no finished coalition agreement yet “can only mean that there is a massive dispute,” said the leader of the Green Party, Mathias Wagner, on Wednesday morning.
But the negotiators couldn’t take too much time anyway. Next Saturday, the SPD delegates will vote on the coalition agreement at an extraordinary party conference in Groß-Umstadt. A party committee of the CDU meets in Frankfurt on the same day. This leaves the delegates a little more than two days to work through the paper with its more than 180 pages. As Prime Minister Boris Rhein (CDU) announced last week, the coalition agreement could be signed next Monday, December 18th. The new state parliament will be constituted on January 18th.