Under the leadership of a party that has served as Angela Merkel’s junior coalition partner for 12 of the past 16 years and two parties capable of doing things in different ways, the next German government represents the strangeness of status quo thinking and reformist instincts. combination.
The alliance agreement submitted by the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Green Party and the Liberal Democratic Party (FDP) on Wednesday hints at how Germany will change — and how it will stay the same.
environment
By setting up a new climate-energy-economy super ministry, as well as the Ministry of Environment and Agriculture, the Green Party should have a way to formulate Germany’s environmental agenda in a new and more unified way. In past governments, the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Economy often worked in opposite directions.
The alliance agreement stipulates that Germany will close its last coal-fired power plant by 2030, eight years earlier than envisaged by the outgoing government. In the same year, the country’s goal was to extract 80% of its energy from renewable sources.
Gas-fired power generation will be stopped by 2040, and the use of gas-fired boilers in new and existing buildings will be banned by 2030.
Surprisingly, the next Minister of Transport will come from the liberal Liberal Democrats, which should stifle the last hope of those who hope that Germany will eventually impose a maximum speed limit on highways. The business-friendly FDP positions itself as the last champion of internal combustion engines.
economy
The government will act in accordance with the central campaign pledge of the incoming prime minister Olaf Scholz to raise the national minimum wage to 12 euros per hour, a move that will affect approximately 10 million people, especially in the northeast And the impoverished areas of the Ruhr Valley. The Social Democratic Party performed strongly in September.
The reimbursement of the wealth tax-which was called for by the Social Democrats and the Green Party in their election manifesto-failed to survive coalition negotiations. The debt-averse FDP’s new Finance Minister Christian Lindner (Christian Lindner) may become an obstacle rather than a booster for further spending plans on behalf of the two liberal left parties.
Germany will legalize the controlled sale of adult recreational marijuana. The German Institute of Economic Research in Cologne predicts that this decision will generate 2.5 billion euros in additional revenue each year.
Europe
None of the political parties in the new government promised to radically change Germany’s position. EuropeIn Lindner, the government will have a finance minister, and many southern European countries worry that this may drag the continent’s most powerful economy back to its pre-pandemic fiscal conservative stance. Whether Lindner will shape the Ministry of Finance and vice versa remains to be seen.
The alliance agreement stipulates that Germany must fulfill its role as the “anchor of stability” in Europe. “Sound finances and frugal use of taxpayers’ money are the principles of our budget and fiscal policy,” it said.
If the President of the European Commission is not from Germany, the Green Party has won the right to nominate the country’s European Commissioner, as is the case with Ursula von der Lein, which may give them some influence in European decision-making.
The new government mentioned the United Kingdom by the way as one of its partners that it hopes to maintain a close relationship with. “The UK remains one of Germany’s closest partners outside the EU… We also hope to cooperate on foreign and security policies.”
Relations with China and Russia
The new Foreign Minister Annalena Belbok has vowed to set a more “active” foreign policy agenda than her predecessor, mainly to set a tougher tone in its dealings with Russia and China.Will place more emphasis on democratic values and human rights instead of focusing on old creeds Change through trade – Encourage democratization through economic participation. FDP has broad prospects for transatlanticism and is likely to support this route.
In Angela Merkel’s time, Germany’s foreign policy was actually implemented in her Chancellery, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was sometimes reduced to a diplomatic spokesperson. It is not clear whether this is also the case under Schultz, who has a strong view of foreign policy.
Some fairly specific language in the alliance agreement indicates that the change in direction may be real. The parties called for new elections in Belarus and supported the use of further sanctions without changing the course of Alexander Lukashenko. The government stated that it will raise human rights violations when dealing with China, especially in Xinjiang, and “supports democratic Taiwan to participate in international organizations on specific issues.”
NordStream II is a natural gas pipeline connecting Russia and Germany. It is supported by the Social Democratic Party but opposed by the Green Party. It is not mentioned in the alliance treaty.
Coronavirus disease
The most pressing problem that the new German government needs to solve is the pandemic. The number of infections is rising, The stagnant vaccination rate, and the pandemic emergency that is about to end this month.
But during the alliance negotiations, the management of the pandemic has always been the question that the three parties seem to be the least willing to answer. According to reports in the German media, both parties are trying to deceive the Ministry of Health because they know that the next politician will face difficult choices in terms of possible vaccine authorization and almost impossible expectations.
In the end it got into trouble with the Social Democratic Party, which said on Wednesday that it would not announce a new minister until early December.
