CDU and Greens agree to coalition agreement

AOn Monday evening, the new black-green coalition in Schleswig-Holstein cleared the last hurdle. At party conferences in Neumünster, the CDU and Greens voted in favor of the joint coalition agreement with clear majorities.

This means that the contract can be signed on Tuesday and Daniel Günther can be re-elected Prime Minister in the state parliament on Wednesday. Black-Green has 48 of 69 mandates in the state parliament.

Climate neutrality by 2040

At the CDU party conference, Günther began with a detailed thank you: for the FDP, which had ruled in Kiel together with the CDU and the Greens for the past five years. The CDU state chairman then campaigned for the coalition agreement and emphasized that the strong CDU election result was reflected in both the topics and the personal details. Of course, green positions are also represented in the contract, “who wanted to hide that”.

“The fact that we want to achieve the ambitious climate goals” is also important to the Union, said Günther. Schleswig-Holstein wants to become climate-neutral by 2040. “This is not a green dot in the coalition agreement.” You should also sell that as a CDU as a joint success.

Günther also spoke of the CDU handwriting in the planned acceleration of planning and approval for major projects, in transport policy with a clear commitment to the fixed Fehmarn Belt crossing and the construction of the A20, or in domestic politics.

The composition of the cabinet was eagerly awaited: while, for example, the deputy CDU federal chairman Karin Prien remains Minister of Education as expected, Günther also managed a small coup with the occupation of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, even if it was no longer a surprise in the end: the previous one Rostock Mayor Claus Ruhe Madsen leaves the Hanseatic city and moves to the Kiel cabinet. He will be the first Dane to become a minister in Schleswig-Holstein. In several “highly exciting encounters,” said Günther, he found that “there is a similar understanding of the political style.”

The actual debate on the coalition agreement then lasted only a few minutes – the CDU only needed to talk about geese and wolf management. Then the vote was taken: the treaty was accepted with only three abstentions.

In the case of the Greens, the discussion lasted more than two hours, there was a need to speak above all about agriculture – and the fact that the area should not be settled with the Green Ministry of Climate, but should go to a CDU minister. There was a lot of criticism of that, as well as of the “toads” that had to be swallowed when it came to mobility and traffic. The A20 was mentioned again and again.

Heinold: The contract is good for Schleswig-Holstein

The most critical tones came at the beginning of the state party conference from the speakers of the Green Youth, who discussed the coalition agreement on Saturday. Of course, there have been successes in the negotiations, but these cannot make up for the overall unsatisfactory result. “Not even the points that made it into the contract are safe,” said state spokeswoman Smilla Mester.

Finance Minister Monika Heinold had previously campaigned for approval of the paper. “We have a coalition agreement ahead of us that is not only green, but above all good for Schleswig-Holstein,” said Heinold. Climate protection cannot wait for politicians, said Heinold, who are to take over the office of finance minister again in the new cabinet. Climate protection needs action and the Greens wanted it. “Let’s vote for this coalition agreement so that in five years we can say that this coalition has made climate protection a top priority.”

In many speeches, the Greens emphasized that it is important to shape politics now, despite the compromises that had to be found with the CDU. Many of those involved in negotiating the coalition agreement also praised the pleasant and trusting cooperation with the CDU. “In the end they didn’t make big pants after all,” said Heinold, for example. In some speeches, however, it was also suggested that Günther’s CDU had let it be known that it was the “43 percent party”.

In the state elections on May 8, the CDU was able to increase significantly and came to 43.4 percent. The Greens were also able to gain and came to 18.3 percent. The FDP, on the other hand, had to accept losses and only got a good six percent. The CDU only needed one partner for a clear majority, and after brief explorations as to whether Jamaica could still continue, Günther finally decided in favor of the Greens.

Shortly before the vote on the coalition agreement and the occupation of the Green-led ministries – alongside Heinold Aminata Touré as Minister for Social Affairs and Tobias Goldschmidt as Minister for Climate and Environment – an amendment by Philipp Schmagold was discussed and voted on Monday evening in Neumünster. Schmagold brought himself up as Minister for the Environment, but his proposal was rejected with a yes vote and four abstentions. The delegates then approved the coalition agreement with four no votes and five abstentions.