The three parties talking about a new alliance in Germany will present their coalition agreement this afternoon. The Social Democratic Socialist Party, the Green Party and the Free Democratic Party will hold a press conference at 3 p.m. to explain the plans.
The deal means that SPD leader Olaf Scholz is likely to become the new chancellor. The Bundestag will vote on it. Thus he became the successor to Angela Merkel (CDU), whose resignation after sixteen years. Her party suffered a huge loss in the parliamentary elections at the end of September, and Merkel had already indicated that she did not want to run again.
Coal-fired power plants
The Traffic Lights Coalition, named after the three parties, earlier said it was committed to modernizing the economy and fighting climate change.
Some plans of the SPD, the Green Party, and the FDP have already appeared in an exploratory document. This included early retirement for coal-fired power plants and an increase in the minimum wage from €9.60 to €12 an hour.
need approval
Formal negotiations on a new coalition agreement began on October 21. At the beginning of October, the head of the SPD already predicted the formation of a new government before December. The deal still needs the approval of the members of both parties.
Since German reunification in 1990, it has taken between 30 and 171 days to form a new government. The record for the longest formation was set in 2017.
It has been 59 days since the elections to the Bundestag on 26 September. The duration of the formation will increase somewhat because the new government has not yet been presented.
Reporter Wouter Zwart explained earlier in this video why the German elections were also important to us:
