Black-red federal government | With AfD agenda against shift to the right

Four weeks ago, Markus Söder's words were modest by his standards. When he presented the coalition agreement between the CDU/CSU and SPD together with the designated Federal Chancellor and the future Vice Chancellor, he said it could become "a small bestseller." Because, as the CSU leader put it: "Every sentence is pure politics." Whether that will be enough of a selling point for the people who will soon be able to purchase the document at kiosks, or whether it will ultimately be a slow seller, remains to be seen.

In any case, CDU leader Friedrich Merz, who is seeking election as chancellor in the Bundestag this Tuesday, SPD leader and Vice Chancellor-in-waiting Lars Klingbeil, and Söder signed the agreement in Berlin on Monday. This effectively clears all hurdles on the way to starting government work.

If not too many people are buying the illustrated booklet entitled "Responsibility for Germany," it could be partly because "Germany" certainly doesn't refer to the majority of the working population. Rather, it refers to companies that are in line for tax breaks and "turbo depreciation," and to the higher earners.

Furthermore, and this may also have stuck in some minds, the future Finance Minister Klingbeil stated when presenting the plans of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU)-Left Party (SPD) coalition that these were subject to funding. In other words: Only if there is still money left over beyond the planned extreme expansion of spending on the Bundeswehr, arms aid to Ukraine, and the upgrading of infrastructure along NATO's eastern flank can anything be made available for social housing, climate protection, the transport transition, education, and civilian research.

While the amendment to the Basic Law passed by the old Bundestag created a new special fund for "defense" in all conceivable facets, with unlimited borrowing options, and an exemption from the debt brake for infrastructure, the debt brake continues to apply to all other areas and departments.

Breach of law in the coalition agreement

The designated Federal Minister of the Interior, Alexander Dobrindt (CSU), set the tone for the future coalition between the SPD and the CDU/CSU over the weekend. He announced that immediately after taking office on Wednesday, he would order further tightened controls and the rejection of asylum seekers at Germany's external borders. Border controls would be "increased and rejections increased," the CSU official said. "For humanity and order to succeed equally, control, clarity, and consistency are needed," he explained. To this end, "national and European decisions are being prepared."

Technically, according to the coalition agreement, the rejections will be carried out "in coordination with the European partners." The SPD portrayed this as its commitment to respecting EU treaties. But in this and other areas, the future coalition government, which has a majority of just twelve votes, will test how far it can go without being rebuffed by the courts.

Left Party co-chair Jan van Aken also said, with reference to the coalition agreement, that it "openly announces a breach of the law." In addition to the plans to reject asylum seekers at the border, he referred to the announcement that the citizen's allowance would be reduced to zero for those who repeatedly refuse work. Both are illegal and nothing more than "scapegoat politics," van Aken emphasized.

Reorganization of the SPD

The formation of the government is now effectively complete. The final formal act is the election of CDU leader Friedrich Merz as chancellor. The cabinet members nominated by the parties will then receive their appointment certificates from Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. The future ministers were introduced on Monday as "18 for Germany," after the SPD also announced their names.

While Lars Klingbeil , who led the SPD to a new record low in the election results, will become Vice Chancellor and Minister of Justice, SPD co-leader Saskia Esken came away empty-handed. The SPD executive committee is scheduled to be re-elected at a party conference in June. Klingbeil is expected to want to continue as party leader—but with whom remains to be seen. Esken could run again, but at least one opposing candidate is expected.

With the nomination of its governing team, the SPD must also elect a new parliamentary group leader. Klingbeil reached an agreement with the SPD's party wings that Matthias Miersch, from the so-called left wing, should become parliamentary group leader. Dirk Wiese, from the conservative Seeheimer Circle, will serve as parliamentary group manager, i.e., first parliamentary manager. The parliamentary group plans to elect a new leadership on Wednesday morning.

After signing the coalition agreement, Merz announced that the CDU/CSU and Social Democrats wanted to govern our country "from tomorrow onwards with power, planning, and trust." Klingbeil declared: "Germany has everything it needs. Now it needs a government that will make something of it." The new government needs "true teamwork more than ever," warned the SPD co-chairman. He declared the motto for the coalition government: "Germany needs fewer administrators and more enablers."

“Germany needs fewer administrators and more enablers.”

Lars Klingbeil , SPD co-chairman and designated vice-chancellor

CSU leader Markus Söder called for "full steam ahead for Germany," while also cautioning: "It won't all happen overnight." A new "Germany pace" must be achieved with the implementation of the decisions from the coalition agreement. A "new optimism" is needed.

Cabinet is getting older and more male

The new cabinet will be somewhat larger, more male, and older than the traffic light coalition of the SPD, the Greens, and the FDP when it took office in 2021. The average age will rise from 50.4 to 53.1 years. This is primarily due to the eleven CDU/CSU members in the government, led by Chancellor Merz (69). They are on average 55 years old, while the SPD cabinet members are 49. Due to the new establishment of the Digital Ministry, there will be 18 ministers instead of the previous 17, ten of whom are men. This represents a larger government for the second consecutive year.

On Tuesday afternoon, the CDU/CSU members of the Bundestag plan to elect former Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) as Merz's successor as their new chairman. The new head of the CSU state group within the parliamentary group is to be Alexander Hoffmann, the current parliamentary manager. The 50-year-old succeeds Alexander Dobrindt. Of the 208 CDU/CSU members of parliament, 44 belong to the CSU.

Grand Tattoo for Olaf Scholz

If all goes according to plan, the new government will take office exactly six months after the collapse of the traffic light coalition of the SPD, the Greens, and the FDP. The outgoing SPD Chancellor Olaf Scholz was to be honored and bid farewell by the Bundeswehr in front of the Ministry of Defense on Monday evening with a "grand tattoo." However, Scholz will remain a member of the Bundestag. He won a direct mandate in Potsdam and intends to hold it until the end of the legislative period. He had only announced his complete withdrawal from politics if he did not win the direct mandate. Scholz requested the Beatles song "In My Life," Johann Sebastian Bach's Second Brandenburg Concerto, and Aretha Franklin's song "Respect" as the title for the tattoo . This was probably because his government laid the foundations for the human rights-disrupting policies of the successor coalition.