The Social Democrats of the SPD, who won the German general elections, the Greens and the Liberals announced on Friday October 15 that they had reached a preliminary agreement with a view to forming a government.
“We did manage to agree on a document. This is a very good result, it clearly shows that a government can be formed in Germany ”, greeted the leader of the SPD, Olaf Scholz, probable future chancellor to replace Angela Merkel, during a press statement with the leaders of the ecological and liberal parties.
These three movements, with very different programs, have been discussing since the beginning of October to try to form this unprecedented coalition, without the conservatives of Angela Merkel who recorded the worst score in their history during the elections of September 26. On the basis of the document presented on Friday, the three parties will deepen their talks and open official negotiations addressing, point by point, all the details of a future alliance.
Coalition “traffic light”
The formation of a new German government is eagerly awaited by the country’s partners, who fear months of paralysis, particularly at the European Union (EU) level, if the political vacuum in Berlin continues.
These advances do not yet mean that a “traffic light” coalition, according to the color of each of the three parties, will be formed without fail and that Olaf Scholz will succeed Angela Merkel, in office since 2005, in the chancellery.
The continuation of the discussions should make it possible to develop a detailed common roadmap between formations which many things oppose, in particular in terms of taxation, with liberals opposed to the tax increases envisaged by the SPD.
The three parties announced on Friday that they wanted to maintain the limits on public debt enshrined in the national constitution and promised not to increase taxes.
The three formations also want “Accelerate” German exit from coal and bring it forward to 2030 ” ideally “, instead of 2038, according to a joint document of a dozen pages published on Friday. A speed limit on the motorway, one of the demands of environmentalists, is however not retained.
If the coalition comes to power, it will have its work cut out for it, in a delicate context for the German economy, weakened by shortages of raw materials and components. The goal of drastically reducing emissions will also require huge investments in construction and transport.