Chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz’s German Social Democracy (SPD) is closer to forming a government than the competing conservative CDU / CSU union led by Armin Laschet. The Greens announced that they wanted to negotiate a coalition with the SPD, then called on the Free Democrats (FDP), who have already accepted the proposal.
On Wednesday morning, the co-chairs of the environmental party, Robert Habeck and Annalena Baerbock, called on the liberals to organize joint elections with the social democrats. “We don’t want to complicate things unnatural,” said Habeck, who is described in the media as the future vice-chancellor. The Greens no longer hid the elections because they were programmatically closer to the SPD than to the CDU / CSU.
FDP boss Christian Lindner welcomed the Greens’ offer. “The Greens and the FDP have held intensive consultations in recent days,” Lindner said. “The next step is a joint exchange of positions between the three parties,” he said. Lindner also announced that he had met Scholz by phone and that the first ballot for the SPD, Greens and Liberals would take place on Thursday.
However, Lindner added that the option of coalition with the union was not definitively rejected and was still part of the options. At the same time, however, he assured that the parties would not conduct parallel talks with the SPD and CDU / CSU. The Greens have a similar point of view, but they criticize the leaking of details of confidential talks with the union to the media. “Trust doesn’t mean it’s not all in the papers,” Baerbock said.
While Lindner spoke of his closeness to the CDU / CSU before the election, he has already negotiated both with the Union and the Social Democrats after the election. He justified this by saying that he was not opposed to cooperation with any democratic party and that it was crucial for the FDP to pursue a liberal policy in the future government. The Liberals have also met with the Greens on several occasions to clarify priorities. The two small parties are essential to the formation of the future German government, without their support, Laschet and Scholz will not be able to make their way to the Chancellery.
Elections in Germany were held on September 26, and the SPD narrowly won with 25.7% of the vote, followed by the union with 24.1% of the vote. Analysts expect it to take weeks, if not months, to form a government, so outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel could rule the country until Christmas. Merkel leaves politics after 16 years in the Chancellery.
“Total travelaholic. Subtly charming zombie geek. Friend of animals everywhere. Music buff. Explorer. Tv junkie.”
