Germany’s Green Party, Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen, formally reached an agreement on Sunday to start negotiations on forming a coalition government with the SPD and the liberal business party FDP. The Green Party leadership is moving in after the three parties held exploratory talks behind closed doors for eight days.
They now want to go further. The council of the SPD nominee for Prime Minister Olaf Scholz agreed immediately after the talks. The FDP board is expected to do the same on Monday. All three winners in the September 26 elections have a comfortable majority of more than 400 seats in the Bundestag (735 members).
Green Party leader Robert Habeck said “green history” was being made and that “we have arrived at a time of hope”. Whether the coalition will be easy to form is not at all intuitive. Bild newspaper had already predicted huge problems in the distribution of ministerial posts.
For example, Habeck and FDP chair Christian Lindner will both claim the post of finance minister. In liberal circles, there are already statements that Lindner on Finance should be a condition of participation in the additional left-wing government team. Funding for ambitious government plans also remains a question mark. All three said on Friday that taxes would not be raised.
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