Government formation: 16 AGS for black and red coalition negotiations

CDU, CSU and SPD want to start with 16 working groups in their in -depth negotiations on a future coalition. The three parties determined the occupation of the specialist AGs, each of which includes 16 people-seven from the SPD, six of the CDU and three of the CSU. This is intended to advise a total of 256 politicians from the federal government, the federal states and the European Parliament on the content of a black and red government program. The coalition negotiations should begin this Thursday at the CDU headquarters.

It is targeted that the AGS consultations should take ten days. A control group should take care of the interlinking. The work then runs towards a negotiating group that also includes the party leader Friedrich Merz (CDU), Lars Klingbeil and Saskia Esken (SPD) and Markus Söder (CSU). As the basis, the Union and SPD had agreed on central points in explorations, but there are still numerous questions to be clarified.

At the SPD, the ministers of the previous traffic light cabinet are all either in an AG or in the main negotiating group-with the exception of Chancellor’s Office Head of Wolfgang Schmidt. Chancellor Olaf Scholz is also left out. Immediately after the election defeat, he had declared that he was not involved in the formation of a new government.

Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD), for example, negotiates in the “Health and Care” AG. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, on the other hand, is not indoors, but for “reducing bureaucracy and state modernization” – as Bremen’s mayor Andreas Bovenschulte. Prime Minister Alexander Schweitzer (Rhineland-Palatinate) is in the AG “Economy, Industry, Tourism”.

For the CDU there is no prime minister in an AG, but Saxony’s head of government Michael Kretschmer is part of the negotiation round. Secretary General Carsten Linnemann is in the AG “Work and Social Affairs”, faction vice Jens Spahn in the Wirtschafts-AG. The Schleswig-Holstein Minister of Education and CDU vice Karin Prien is negotiating in the “Education, Research, Innovation” AG, Baden-Württemberg CDU boss Manuel Hagel about “Digitales”.

In addition to Bundestag MPs, the CSU sends a whole ranks of Bavarian cabinet members – by Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann in the AG “Interior, Law, Migration and Integration” to Transport Minister Christian Bernreiter in Transport AG to Social Minister Ulrike Scharf in the “Work and Social Affairs” AG. For the Agrar-AG, the CSU wish candidate for the office of Federal Minister of Agriculture, Bavaria’s farmers’ president Günther Felßner, was also named.

The parties have bundled departments for the working groups. In this way, the area of ​​the environment also comes to rural areas, agriculture and nutrition. Another AG combines “family, women, youth, seniors and democracy”, another “municipalities, sports and volunteering”. While there is an independent Ministry of Construction in the incumbent government, this area is covered in the AG “Transport and Infrastructure, Building and Living”.

Traffic lights had 22 working groups

The control group plays an important role. According to an organization chart published by the CDU, Linnemann, SPD general secretary Matthias Miersch, Union faction manager Thorsten Frei (CDU) and CSU regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt belong. For comparison of the 256 negotiators: There were 22 AGS in the coalition negotiations for the traffic light government of the SPD, the Greens and the FDP, but which were different sizes. At that time there were around 100 negotiators per party. In the negotiations for the black and red coalition 2018, there were around 200 negotiators in 18 AGS

Parallel struggle for financial package

In parallel to the start of the coalition negotiations, the Union and SPD are trying to advance their agreed huge financial package for defense and infrastructure. Also on Thursday, the parliamentary groups for this want to bring three constitutional changes to the old Bundestag. For the necessary two-thirds majority, the voices of the Greens are needed, but with which difficult negotiations are running.

It is also open when and how the Federal Constitutional Court decides on lawsuits from AfD and Left Party, which are still turning against the procedure in the old Bundestag – instead of dealing with the new elected. Union and SPD want to loosen the debt brake for higher defense spending and to create a special fund of 500 billion euros for investments in the infrastructure.