Almost a month after the general election in Germany, the SPD, Greens and FDP begin their coalition negotiations on Thursday to form a joint federal government. The main negotiators, six high-ranking representatives from each party, meet with the heads of the working groups at the Berlin exhibition center. A total of 22 working groups with specialist politicians will then negotiate the details of a coalition agreement in the coming weeks. According to the SPD, around 300 people will be involved.
The SPD, Greens and FDP are striving to form a joint government before Christmas. It would be the first so-called traffic light coalition at the federal level. The main sticking points in the search for a joint program are differences in tax and financial policy and the right path to climate protection. The SPD, Greens and FDP are heading towards difficult negotiations about the financial viability of their projects.
The distribution of offices usually comes at the end of coalition negotiations. At least the key position of finance minister is already being publicly debated. Politicians from the FDP and the Greens had brought their respective party leaders Christian Lindner and Robert Habeck into play. The Greens co-chair Annalena Baerbock underlined on Wednesday evening in the ARD “Tagesthemen” that they had agreed to first of all tighten the “substantive guard rails” and then to clarify the departmental issues.
Baerbock insisted that the government should be occupied equally. SPD chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz had always stressed during the election campaign that his cabinet would be made up of equal numbers of women and men. That is “not a sure-fire success,” warned the Green leader. (21.10.2021)
Construction industry demands its own building ministry in Berlin
The trade union IG Bau and the construction industry are calling for the future federal government to have its own building ministry. “Housing is the social question of our time. And it deserves the political weight of its own federal ministry,” said the federal chairman of the industrial union for construction, agriculture and the environment, Robert Feiger, the newspapers of the Funke media group. For 23 years, the building department has been leading a “nomadic life” https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/. “It was always an appendage – with traffic, with the environment, with the interior.” The Federal Ministry of the Interior is currently responsible for building.
The general manager of the Main Association of the German Construction Industry (HDB), Tim-Oliver Müller, demanded: “We need a strong Federal Ministry for Construction and Infrastructure to implement the huge projects to modernize our infrastructure.” One of the essential levers for the success of the mobility and energy transition will be an ambitious construction policy, said Müller. “Building must no longer be an annex to a department, but must be placed at the center of action.”
In their explorations, the SPD, Greens and FDP had already agreed on the goal of building 400,000 new apartments per year. “That means almost 1,100 newly built, ready-to-move-in apartments every day from Monday to Sunday – 46 an hour, three apartments every four minutes,” said Feiger. “This is a round-the-clock task. And it requires full strength, full political commitment and full weight at the cabinet table.” (21.10.2021)
Laschet accuses Ampel of a lack of interest in foreign policy
The CDU chairman Armin Laschet accused the SPD, Greens and FDP of lacking interest in foreign policy before the start of their coalition negotiations. “People speak up who want to become finance ministers or climate ministers. International questions are secondary,” said Laschet FAZ. The fact that no one is interested in fragile Europe was already shocking during the election campaign, and now, in the middle of the formation of a government, he is “stunned” about it. In connection with climate policy in particular, a strong foreign policy is needed, “which also addresses this issue strategically around the world,” said Laschet. “That would have happened with the Union.”
It was the right thing to do after the election to keep the option of the Union participating in government open, said Laschet. There was a “recognizable openness of the Greens and the FDP” to sound out with the CDU. That was then made more difficult by errors on the part of the Union. “The fact that we had to live with indiscretions in the smallest of circles did not strengthen trust in the Union.” In any case, the CDU was determined to make a future alliance with the FDP and the Greens possible. “
Laschet calls on his party to do constructive opposition work in the Bundestag. That means not becoming shrill, loud and populist, but showing alternatives in order to be able to govern again in four years at the latest, said Laschet at an event in Goslar, Lower Saxony. (10/20/2021)
Habeck calls for realignment after Weidmann’s farewell
Greens co-head Robert Habeck thanked the outgoing Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann for his work and at the same time called for the Bundesbank to be modernized. “I have great respect for Jens Weidmann’s work,” said Habeck Süddeutsche Zeitung. Weidmann led the Bundesbank with great commitment for more than ten years. “With all the substantive differences that we have, I have perceived him as someone who is open to arguments and who stands up for his positions with great credibility,” he said. At the same time, he called for the farewell to be seen as an opportunity for a new beginning. “For the future, we need a Bundesbank that can respond to the challenges of the times.” From party circles it was reported that a new government would have to decide on the replacement of the post.
This could also make the personnel a point of contention in the upcoming coalition talks. The FDP wants to information from the Süddeutsche Zeitung discuss the realignment of the Bundesbank during the negotiations. It is crucial that the current course in monetary policy is maintained with a new personality at the top, party circles said. Stability policy must not only be an objective of the new federal government, but also of the Bundesbank. The population had high expectations for this. The previous President of the Bundesbank, Jens Weidmann, wants to give up his post early at the end of the year for personal reasons. (10/20/2021)
FDP defends itself against hidden debts
The FDP continues to oppose the plans of the SPD and the Greens to finance state investments through loans from public companies. “There will be no circumvention of the debt brake, in whatever form. It is recorded in the exploratory paper,” said FDP Vice-President Wolfgang Kubicki Rheinische Post. “You can be assured that in the end there will be sufficient funding proposals for our projects. We need a solid budget policy and more creativity in the discussion, which we then conduct internally,” said Kubicki. “In addition, 90 percent of all investments are private investments. We decided to stimulate these together in the exploratory paper.”
The three partners had already agreed in the twelve-page exploratory paper that they presented on Friday that the debt brake anchored in the Basic Law will not be relaxed. This possibility was lost by the outcome of the federal election, said Greens boss Robert Habeck on ZDF. He pointed out that a change of course would require a change in the Basic Law, for which the Union would also be needed – which, however, faced a traffic light coalition as the strongest opposition force and, like the FDP, is a staunch advocate of the debt brake.
But the existing debt brake also allows “a limited amount of credit financing,” said Habeck’s co-boss Annalena Baerbock to the newspapers of the Funke media group. In addition, there are public companies such as Deutsche Bahn AG or the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau, which are already financing part of their investments by taking out loans. SPD leader Norbert Walter-Borjans also said in an interview with the Funke media group: When investing in the future, partial financing with loans is justified. In addition there would be the “possibilities of state institutions such as development banks”.
“It will not fail because of the money to make Germany climate neutral,” said Habeck. There are a number of proposals in the room so that public and private investments increase significantly. Habeck and Baerbock spoke of around 50 billion euros in necessary investments annually. They left details open, but referred to a passage in the exploratory paper, according to which the budget should be “checked for unnecessary, ineffective and environmentally and climate-damaging subsidies and expenditures”.
Baerbock also insisted that the contents of a possible traffic light coalition would first have to be tied down before the distribution of the ministries could be discussed. The background to this are public demands from FDP politicians that FDP leader Christian Lindner should become finance minister. After that, Green politicians had also claimed the department for their party. (10/20/2021)
Baerbock: Didn’t give a majority for the speed limit
For a general speed limit, there was no majority in the traffic light explorations with the SPD and FDP, according to Green co-leader Annalena Baerbock. “That hurt us,” she said on Deutschlandfunk. However, this would only have been a small measure for the climate, actually more important for traffic safety. Otherwise, the Greens would have achieved a lot in the climate area, assured Baerbock – an early phase out of coal, an expansion of renewable energies, a solar roof requirement and clear guard rails for industry. This means there will be a chance to meet the climate targets in the future. The soundings initially laid the cornerstones. “Of course, everything has to be relined.”
Particularly as far as the money is concerned: “The exact financing calculation will then follow in the coalition negotiations,” said Baerbock. Most recently there was criticism of the exploratory paper of the Ampel partners because it is still imprecise when it comes to the specific financing of projects. “That was one of the toughest topics,” said Baerbock. Here the Greens and the FDP would have been far apart. For the modernization of the infrastructure alone, however, 50 billion euros per year are necessary – to be lifted “through societies”. Baerbock does not provide any details on this form of secondary households.
Regarding the criticism of the lack of funding, SPD General Secretary Lars Klingbeil said on ZDF that there was already money in the budgets. In addition, growth will lead to more tax revenue. “We are just seeing that the economy is picking up.” And finally, the agreed global minimum tax will wash almost six billion euros into Germany’s coffers. (10/18/2021)