Agreement on billions of bills: go, Groko!

Of course, you can now start looking for hair in the soup. There are also some: to start this maneuver with the elected Bundestag is risky. Accepting billions of bills, although the opposite has been said before the election, raises questions. And first planning the upgrade before the basic features of a new coalition are even causing irritation.

All right. But – sorry – also a bit populated. You actually want to call: “Bravo, Groko”.

The prospective coalition did a lot right in her first exploratory round. Friedrich Merz and his exploratorys have met confidentially, with manageable public friction and no major staging. Above all, they were quick.

In no time, the Union and SPD reacted to the era organized by Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin and presented a plan that makes the corona wilfing look like smaller pocket money. There will be no limit for defense spending in the future, 500 billion euros will flow in streets, bridges and schools in the next few years.

This is not the country’s rescue at the push of a button. And only money does not make a plan. But the agreement is an expression of the clear knowledge in what dramatic times we live. When politics begins to look at reality again, you are happy after the past three years.

Whether everything comes like this depends on the Greens. Merz needs her in the Bundestag for the plans. You will hurt to facilitate the budget of another government. But because the suggestions almost read as if Robert Habeck secretly wrote along, you want to see the Green Paint that is now being out.

The drastic proposal of the explorers is correct – and that on several levels. In terms of content, because prosperity and security are so threatened that only a fundamental reversal helps. Strategically, because he can correct the image of despondent more established, from which the extremists have been living for years. But also in terms of political culture.

Both sides had to jump over their shadows. Merz by giving the SPD with the opening of the debt brake, which he rejected in the election campaign. The SPD by giving the next Chancellor a war treasury with which he has secured his entry in the history books before taking office. If both are painful, however, it is part of the state policy responsibility.

Is the billion plan a guarantee that the grand coalition becomes a functioning alliance? Of course not, she didn’t even start talking about a contract. But this Tuesday shows that the democratic center, it is not yet dead.