A year together in the government boat: Omid Nouripour, Ricarda Lang, Christian Lindner, Saskia Esken and Lars Klinbeil
Image: dpa
If progress is to be accepted in society, then bridges must be built and cross-camp perspectives integrated. A guest contribution by the chairmen of the SPD, FDP and Greens
VA year ago, our three parties decided to take responsibility for our country together. Recognizing that we are entering a decade of great change, we have forged an alliance to dare more progress. For all the differences between our three parties, we share the firm conviction that responsible politics consists of accepting challenges instead of ignoring them or putting off decisions. Even and especially when they demand something from our country. We want to actively shape change together, strengthen social cohesion, preserve freedom, prosperity and our natural foundations of life: This is how the risk of progress succeeds.
The challenges “are immense, interwoven and demanding in their simultaneity”. Less than three months after we wrote that sentence in our coalition agreement, Russia’s President Putin invaded Ukraine. His brutal and illegal war of aggression continues to this day. Since then, security and cohesion have been challenged in an existential way in Ukraine, also in Europe and the world. And the domestic political consequences are becoming visible with no less urgency. Energy supply, affordable energy prices, monetary stability: many things that our society thought safe were suddenly in question.