Will A Coalition Government Post Merkel Bring Golden Progress In Berlin?
A post Merkel era is going to be a new birth for Germany- growing up from being protected and hand held from running the show on your own, for a change....
Termed as the ‘traffic light coalition’, there is a wave of change to see, with the Social Democratic Party (SDP), the Greens, and the Free Democratic Party (FDP) having agreed to form a new government headed by the SDP’s Olaf Scholz.
It is going to be a rough ride- with all three parties having to come to a common ground and footing. While the Greens are hugely focused on the environment, the FDP is looking at pushing for its agenda of a free market orthodoxy, and the SDP is obsessively for redistributive social democracy. Will they find a common ground to work on after a successful 16 years of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) dominating the highest levels of Germany politics? Time will tell!
One can also look at the way all three are functioning vis-a-vie the distribution of ministries is concerned. It shows an interesting mix of old and new policies. The coalition agreement divides ministries as follows: SDP get the chancellorship and six other ministries (including the interior and defense ministries), the Greens get five (including the foreign and newly-created economy and climate protection ministries), and the FDP gets four (including the all-important finance ministry).
Termed as the ‘traffic light coalition’, there is a wave of change to see, with the Social Democratic Party (SDP), the Greens, and the Free Democratic Party (FDP) having agreed to form a new government headed by the SDP’s Olaf Scholz.
It is going to be a rough ride- with all three parties having to come to a common ground and footing. While the Greens are hugely focused on the environment, the FDP is looking at pushing for its agenda of a free market orthodoxy, and the SDP is obsessively for redistributive social democracy. Will they find a common ground to work on after a successful 16 years of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) dominating the highest levels of Germany politics? Time will tell!
One can also look at the way all three are functioning vis-a-vie the distribution of ministries is concerned. It shows an interesting mix of old and new policies. The coalition agreement divides ministries as follows: SDP get the chancellorship and six other ministries (including the interior and defense ministries), the Greens get five (including the foreign and newly-created economy and climate protection ministries), and the FDP gets four (including the all-important finance ministry).
The Greens have reasons to be focused on the environment- Germany is gradually moving out of the coal use zone with its deadline preponed from 2038 to 2030. FDP was delighted to get its hands on the all-important Finance ministry. An FDP-controlled finance ministry will effectively pump the brakes on pandemic-era efforts to pool EU fiscal resources, and this is one area where the new coalition can be expected to closely mirror the Merkel legacy.
Comments
Post a Comment