Söder: More than 70 new projects
The coalition agreement is entitled “Freedom and Stability. For a modern, cosmopolitan and home-loving Bavaria”. CSU boss Söder said that all promises from the election campaign would be implemented. In total, the new coalition is launching more than 70 new projects. The direction in Bavaria is already correct, but the Free State will be further developed. The contract is a “really good course book”: “It contains everything that Bavaria needs for the next few years.”
Weekly “constitutional quarter hour” in schools
As announced in recent months, there will be additional teaching positions and childcare places. All students from the 5th grade onwards should be equipped with digital devices by 2028 at the latest. In addition, the CSU and Free Voters want to introduce a weekly “constitutional quarter of an hour” in schools.
The queer action plan demanded by the CSU should also come. Give all children compulsory “language proficiency assessments” before the last year of kindergarten. For asylum seekers, “as far as legally possible, the principle of benefits in kind” should be switched. For this purpose, a payment card solution will be introduced nationwide.
The moratorium on a third runway at Munich Airport is being extended; the Free Voters actually wanted to get a definitive no. The new concert hall in Munich’s Werksviertel is to be built, but in view of the high costs, the plans are to be “revised and resized”. According to Söder, “the lean state” is very important to the coalition partners. Bavaria wants to “take a new path” and “go backwards” when it comes to laws.
Preamble: Commitment to “the principles of our democracy”
The coalition agreement is preceded – as announced – by a preamble in which both parties commit to protecting the “free democratic basic order”: “We resolutely oppose all forms of anti-Semitism, intolerance, xenophobia and racism,” it says in the paper. “Aware of our history and with deepest conviction, we acknowledge our historical responsibility and the principles of our democracy.”
FW parliamentary group leader Florian Streibl said that his party, as a civil force, stands together with the CSU against the threats that the Free State is confronted with “from outside and inside, from the right and the left.” They want to “defend the value of democracy in Bavaria, the value of our constitutional state to the best of our ability.” Streibl spoke of proclaiming “a new era” in which “we will put democracy first and talk better and well about democracy again.” That is the best protection “against right and left”.
Criticism of the opposition
Green party leader Katharina Schulze criticized the coalition agreement as “unambitious and full of empty promises.” The coalition does not provide a future concept for Bavaria: “It is digging out its old projects and simply repeating points that were already formulated as a goal in 2018 and were never implemented, such as the water cent.” And if the government parties first have to assure each other that “they have both feet firmly on democratic ground,” she would worry “for our beautiful Bavaria.”
According to SPD parliamentary group leader Florian von Brunn, the coalition agreement lists many important topics, most of which were already discussed in 2018. “The CSU and Free Voters now have to serve five years in detention because they didn’t do their homework in the last legislative period.” The SPD will closely monitor “whether, for example, new affordable housing is being built, the expansion of wind power is being accelerated or the transformation process in the automotive industry is being sufficiently promoted and supported.”
Söder will be elected on Tuesday
Exactly two weeks ago, the CSU and Free Voters initially used an exploratory round for an open discussion, and the coalition negotiations began a day later, for which strict secrecy was agreed. In terms of content, all questions had already been largely clarified on Monday, and the party leaders Söder and Aiwanger were still working on the trickiest points – the layout of the ministries and the distribution of ministerial and state secretary posts – in a small group on Wednesday, together with the parliamentary group leaders Klaus Holetschek and Florian Streibl .
The further schedule envisages that the new state parliament will meet for the first time next Monday. The election of the Prime Minister is scheduled for Tuesday. In the new state parliament, the CSU and Free Voters together have a majority of 122 of the 203 seats.