Will the traffic light made up of the SPD, Greens and FDP really last until the regular election in September 2025? Or will it fall apart beforehand? Chancellor Scholz has a clear stance on this.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz acknowledged difficulties in the traffic lights, but called on the coalition partners to continue working until the end of the electoral period. Anyone who has been given a mandate to govern by the citizens must fulfill their tasks, said the SPD politician in the ZDF program “Maybrit Illner”. That is a duty. “And no one should just fall into the bushes. That’s certainly not my style.”
After the 2017 federal election, the CDU/CSU, FDP and Greens failed to form a Jamaica coalition. Four years later, the SPD, Greens and FDP managed to form a government, said Scholz. “But it’s also correspondingly difficult.” He doesn’t want to beat around it: “From my point of view, it’s sometimes very difficult to get through all the many disputes and do everything to ensure that good results come out of them.”
But governments in other countries also have difficulty communicating in view of the major challenges, said Scholz. A look at the current election results abroad makes it seem very unlikely that there will be governments in the future with parties that do not have very many different views. “And once we have received the mandate from the voters, we have to try to do that well somehow.”
“It’s not good at all that things are going this way”
In recent months there has been repeated speculation about an early end to the coalition due to the many disputes between the traffic light parties. The acid test now is whether the SPD, Greens and FDP can agree on the 2025 federal budget in the coming weeks despite the difficult financial situation.
Scholz said of the disputes: “It’s not good at all that things are going this way.” Like many citizens, he is annoyed that “it takes so long, that so many people still leave side comments, that in between you can see how everyone presents their different opinions in detail.”
A current controversial topic is the pension package that has already been discussed by the Bundestag in its first reading. It was also presented by Finance Minister and FDP leader Christian Lindner. Nevertheless, the FDP parliamentary group is now demanding improvements. Scholz made it clear on ZDF: “The federal government has submitted the legislative proposal to the German Bundestag and it will also be decided this year.” The project is in the coalition agreement.
Source: Stern
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