The delegates of the special party congress voted on Saturday with an overwhelming majority for the coalition agreement with the Greens and the FDP. 98.8 percent voted for it. “We now have the chance: Germany can take off,” said Scholz. The decisions of the FDP and the Greens on the coalition are still pending.
In their coalition agreement negotiated over weeks, the traffic light parties promise, among other things, great efforts in terms of climate protection and restructuring of the industry. At the same time, improvements are planned for low-wage earners, tenants and families, for example. The minimum wage is to rise rapidly to 12 euros, and 400,000 new apartments are to be built annually. “I am incredibly proud of what we have negotiated together,” said SPD General Secretary Lars Klingbeil.
SPD party chairman Norbert Walter-Borjans promised that his party would still not be a “speaker of the government” and that he would continue to pursue the goals that did not make it into the coalition agreement. His co-chair, Saskia Esken, emphasized: “We make history with the traffic light.” The three-way alliance is also a risk.
However, the vote of the SPD party congress alone is not enough to form the coalition. An FDP party congress will also vote on Sunday, and the Greens are currently questioning their members. The result of this ballot is to be announced on Monday. Only then will it be clear whether there will be a government made up of the SPD, the Greens and the FDP for the first time at the federal level. Then the coalition agreement could be signed on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Scholz could be elected Chancellor in the Bundestag and his cabinet sworn in.
Unlike the FDP and the Greens, the SPD has not yet announced who it will appoint as ministers in this cabinet. It is clear that the Social Democrats will take over the ministries for labor and social affairs, building, health, home affairs, defense and economic development in addition to the Chancellery. In addition, the SPD provides the minister of the Chancellery. It is expected that the names will not be announced until Monday – and that the SPD will nominate a majority of women. Scholz had promised that his cabinet would have equal numbers of women and men.
Already during the coalition negotiations it became clear that the SPD, Greens and FDP want to display a different style of government than the grand coalition of the Union and SPD recently. “It is not about a policy of the lowest common denominator, but rather a policy of great impact,” Scholz promised when presenting the coalition agreement. He is already aiming for the alliance to last longer than one legislative period, i.e. longer than four years. “A government will become possible that will run to work together amicably and to be re-elected,” he said. The departure is just not done in four years.
Source: Nachrichten
