Traffic light negotiations: SPD should provide seven ministers

In the afternoon, the coalition agreement between the SPD, the Greens and the FDP will be presented. Not much is known about the content – but first information about the distribution of the ministries has already been leaked.

Two months after the federal elections, negotiations between the SPD, the Greens and the FDP on the formation of a new government are about to be concluded. The three parties want to present their coalition agreement at a press conference at 3 p.m. Its details have so far been negotiated with absolute confidentiality.

In the morning the main round of negotiations of the three parties came together for their final meeting. Until recently, there were open issues in finance and climate policy as well as in the allocation of ministries. The filling of the ministerial posts also remained open.

A total of 17 ministries

As the news agency Reuters learned from insider circles, the coalition agreement provides for a total of seventeen departments, one more than in the current government.

According to this, the Social Democrats can occupy seven ministerial posts: In addition to the head of the Chancellery, the SPD is to lead the ministries for the interior, defense, health, labor and social affairs, economic cooperation and the newly created construction and housing department. According to information from ARD capital studios there should also be a Minister of State for Migration, Refugees and Integration and a Minister of State for the new federal states in the Chancellery.

The Greens should therefore provide the Vice Chancellor and take responsibility for the Federal Foreign Office, economy and climate protection, environment and consumer protection, family as well as food and agriculture. They also provide the Minister of State for Culture and the Media and also have the right to propose a possible EU commissioner. The FDP is to have four ministries: Education and Research, Finance, Justice, and Transport and Digital.

No names announced yet

According to Reuters, initially only the ministries were distributed to the parties. Which politician should lead a ministry will be announced at a later date. The Greens will therefore announce the personal details tomorrow, while the SPD will only name the names after the party congress on December 4th.

Most recently, FDP boss Christian Lindner as the new finance minister and the Greens co-chairmen Robert Habeck and Annalena Baerbock for the areas of climate / economy and foreign affairs were more or less set. For the SPD, Olaf Scholz has been appointed as the new Federal Chancellor.

Coalition agreement has yet to be approved

The coalition negotiations began on October 21, after the three traffic light parties had previously laid the foundation stone for them in explorations. They were led in a main negotiating group made up of seven high-ranking representatives from each party and in 22 working groups. In these, the politicians of the parties negotiated the details of the coalition agreement.

In the case of the SPD and FDP, the coalition agreement must be approved by party congresses and in the case of the Greens in a member survey. The previous Finance Minister Scholz will then be elected Chancellor in the Bundestag during St. Nicholas Week. After 16 years, this would end the era of Chancellor Angela Merkel, who did not run again in the federal elections on September 26th.

The Greens’ strike vote starts tomorrow

According to the party, the Greens members will be in a digital ballot from tomorrow on the coalition agreement negotiated with the SPD and FDP. According to the party, the 125,000 members will also decide on the Green personnel table, such as the appointment of ministerial posts – “for the first time in our party history,” as Federal Managing Director Michael Kellner said.

Agreement on the controversial issue of climate protection

Only yesterday the party chairmen and general secretaries of the SPD, Greens and FDP reached an agreement on the issue of climate protection. According to information from ARD capital studios A massive expansion of renewable energies should be laid down in the coalition agreement. By 2030, wind and sun should cover 80 percent of electricity consumption in Germany; nationwide, every third car should be fully electric by then. A little later, vehicles with combustion engines will no longer be registered in Germany.

The planned traffic light coalition is also targeting the year 2030 for the coal phase-out – that would be eight years earlier than previously planned.

Basic points already in the exploratory paper

In the exploratory paper, the SPD, the Greens and the FDP had already made some “preliminary determinations” and cleared away some issues. In it they wrote “a comprehensive renewal of our country” and “a new departure” for Germany in order to cope with major challenges such as climate change, digitization, securing prosperity and social cohesion.

Probably in consideration of the election promises of the FDP, it was agreed that no new taxes on assets would be introduced and taxes such as income tax, corporate tax or value added tax would not be increased. In the first year of a traffic light coalition, the statutory minimum wage is to be increased to twelve euros per hour. This was a central election promise of the SPD. The voting age for Bundestag and European elections is to be reduced from 18 to 16 years.

On the subject of migration, it was agreed to speed up asylum procedures, family reunification procedures and returns. Legal access routes to Germany are to be created.