“I think it’s completely normal that three parties who have come together from different directions have to overcome a few bumpy stretches,” he said on Tuesday after a meeting with the board of directors of the German Trade Union Federation (DGB) in Berlin. “I would find it rather difficult to explain the other way around, if the three parties sit down and snuggle into a coalition agreement with practically no problems.”
All three had to meet expectations, said Walter-Borjans, who announced his retirement as SPD leader on Friday. The coalition agreement does not have to regulate everything in detail. What is needed is a clear framework – also for how conflicts that only arise in the government are resolved.
After the general election on September 26, the Social Democrats, Greens and Liberals agreed to start coalition negotiations to form a “traffic light” coalition. 22 working groups of the three parties are to work out the building blocks of a coalition agreement by November 10th. Provided that the negotiations are successfully concluded, the SPD’s top candidate Olaf Scholz is to be elected Chancellor by Parliament in the week of December 6th.