Two months after the German election, the new coalition government has outlined its future. The new coalition government will take over from incumbent Chancellor Angela Merkel before Christmas next December. A fourth leader from the Social Democratic Party after World War II is set to become the country’s chancellor.
This is the first time that the Social Democratic Party, the Environmental Green Party and the Liberal Democratic Party have formed an alliance, despite the long tradition of forming an alliance government in Germany. This alliance is being called the ‘traffic light’ alliance. Political parties in Germany have different colored symbols. The symbols of these three allied parties are red, green and yellow.
Leaders of the new coalition government announced the outline of the next government at a news conference in Berlin on Wednesday. After two months of negotiations following Germany’s 20th general election on September 28, the three parties have agreed to form a coalition government for the next four years. The three parties in the upcoming new coalition government will now form a government within the next two weeks after holding a party conference and getting the consent of the party members. It is expected that the coalition government will be sworn in before Christmas on December 25 and will come to power.
The new alliance has outlined a number of new initiatives in Germany on climate protection, digitization, social reform, economic and modernization. But one of the most important tasks at the moment is to prevent the spread of the Corona epidemic and to overcome the emerging crisis.
Olaf Schultz, leader of the Social Democrats, is set to become Germany’s new chancellor. Olaf Schultz, 72, is currently the finance minister of the Angela Merkel-led coalition government. He was once the mayor of the port city of Hamburg. He was general secretary of the Social Democrats in 2002 under former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. He had previously served as Germany’s Minister of Labor and Social Welfare in Merkel’s coalition government. He has been the Finance Minister and Assistant Chancellor of the coalition government since 2016.
A new surprise for the upcoming coalition government is the appointment of a woman foreign minister for the first time. Analina Bearbach, 40, president of the German environmentalist Green Party, is being nominated for the post. Born in Hanover, Analena studied political science and public law at the University of Hamburg. He has been a Member of Parliament for the Green Party in the German Parliament since 2013. Liberal Democrat leader Christian Lindner has been named finance minister.
The outline of the new coalition government focuses on civic benefits such as minimum wage, pension increase and civic benefits, establishment of more rights for children and youth, repeal of discriminatory laws on abortion of women, simplification of citizenship laws for immigrants. New pay scales have been proposed for employees in hospitals, nursing homes and kindergartens.
In the economic field, there is talk of making simple rules to encourage the public to invest in the capital market. In the face of the acute housing crisis in Germany at the moment, it has been decided to plan and build four lakh houses every year with government subsidies and financial assistance. According to the new decision on climate protection, any plan that pollutes the environment will be scrapped. Environment and climate friendly projects will be taken up.
The three parties in the upcoming ruling coalition have shared responsibilities in 16 ministries. The Social Democratic Party is going to get 8 ministries, the Environmental Green Party 5 and the Liberal Democratic Party 4 ministries.
