Status: 05.09.2021 3:54 a.m.
“Many intersections”: The Greens would be the preferred coalition partner of SPD Chancellor candidate Scholz. For the Left Party, he criticized and many non-negotiable points in an interview. The left itself is already preparing talks.
In view of rising polls, SPD chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz hopes, according to his own words, for a majority for a red-green coalition after the federal election. “I would like to govern together with the Greens,” said the Federal Finance Minister and Vice Chancellor to the “Tagesspiegel”. He has worked with the Greens in various governments. Both parties have “different objectives, but we have a lot of overlaps.”
In the current ARD Germany trend the SPD comes to 25 percent and the Greens to 16 percent.
Criticism of the Left Party
Scholz criticized the Left Party for its stance on the Bundeswehr rescue operation in Afghanistan. The voting behavior in the Bundestag was “bad”. The majority of left-wing MPs abstained, but there were also some yes and no votes.
Scholz said that anyone who wants to take on government responsibility has to make a clear commitment to cooperation with the USA, to the transatlantic partnership and to NATO. “He has to commit to a strong, sovereign European Union and to the fact that we deal solidly with the money that the economy has to grow,” he added. These requirements are non-negotiable.
“When, if not now?”
According to left leader Susanne Henning-Wellsow, the chances for an alliance of the SPD, the Greens and the Left Party at the federal level are better than ever. “When, if not now?”, She asked in the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung”. That is why their party is preparing for a coalition with the SPD and the Greens “for the first time in the history of the party”.
The left-wing top candidates Janine Wissler and Dietmar Bartsch want to present a government program with key dates for possible coalition negotiations this Monday. As the “FAS” reports, this is already quite specific. Among other things, the Left wants to increase the minimum wage and pensions, abolish Hartz-IV and introduce basic child security and a nationwide rent cap.
Henning-Wellsow relies on the approval of the SPD and Greens base. She is not sure whether Scholz and the Green Chancellor candidate Annalena Baerbock are really interested in governing with the left. “But I know both of them that the shop behind them wants to,” says Henning-Wellsow.
A red-green-red alliance would come to 47 percent in the current ARD Germany trend.
Laschet warns of a left alliance
CDU chief Armin Laschet warned urgently of red-green-red. “Some say yes: Now the red sock campaign is being revived,” said Laschet. But that’s not the point. If the left wants to dissolve NATO and the protection of the constitution, there are reasons “that these people are not allowed to sit in a German government,” said Laschet. But Scholz does not have a clear stance on this.