CDU takes over climate department
Berliner Schwarz-Rot distributes the items
4/3/2023 4:56 am
The coalition agreement is complete, the departments are divided: The new state government in the capital is as good as ready to go. On the way to a black-red Senate, however, the parties still have to overcome two hurdles. Theoretically, the coalition can still fail at the party base.
After the CDU and SPD agreed on a coalition agreement in Berlin at the weekend, the allocation of departments for the future black-red government in the capital has now apparently been decided. As it was said from negotiating circles, the CDU should take over the important department for environment, mobility and climate protection. In addition, there are the Senate Departments for Education, Finance, Justice and Culture.
According to the agreement, the SPD should also lead five senate administrations: interior, housing and construction, work and social affairs, economy and health and science. In addition, the CDU, as the winner of the repeat election on February 12, will in future provide the governing mayor: your country chief Kai Wegner is scheduled for the office. In the town hall, he would be the successor to SPD chairwoman Franziska Giffey, who wants to work as a senator in the new state government. Which people from both parties take over which posts was not the subject of the agreement on Sunday evening. This will be officially announced at a later date. The coalition agreement will be presented on Monday.
Resistance to black and red in the SPD
After the presentation of the coalition agreement, there are still two hurdles to be overcome on the way to a black-red Senate. The SPD is starting a member vote this week, the result of which will be announced on April 23. The CDU will decide on the government program at a party conference, which is expected to take place after the SPD results have been announced. The election of Wegner as head of government and the swearing-in of the senators can therefore take place at the end of April at the earliest, i.e. in just under four weeks.
The fact that the Black-Red project will still fail at the party base is considered unlikely, although there was resistance to it, especially in the SPD. There, a number of members had advocated continuing the three-party coalition with the Greens and the Left, which was formed for the first time in 2016 and again in 2021. Such an alliance would still have had a majority in the new House of Representatives. SPD leader Giffey could even have remained governing mayor in this coalition. But she decided, together with the rest of the party leadership, to form a coalition as a junior partner with the election winner, the CDU – and hopes that the coalition agreement that has been negotiated will appease those within the party who criticize this change.
The CDU clearly won the repeat election in Berlin on February 12 with 28.2 percent. SPD and Greens both came to 18.4 percent. However, the Social Democrats only have a very narrow lead of 53 votes over the Greens. They did worse than ever in a House of Representatives election. The left came to 12.2 percent, the AfD to 9.1. The FDP flew with 4.6 percent from the parliament, which now has five instead of six parliamentary groups. The Berlin Constitutional Court declared the election on September 26, 2021, after which Giffey became head of government, to be invalid due to “serious systemic deficiencies” and numerous electoral errors and ordered a repetition.