Preliminary agreement in Germany to negotiate the Grand Coalition between conservatives and socialists

BerlinConservatives and Social Democrats will begin formal negotiations this week to form a coalition government in Germany, after reaching a pre-agreement on Saturday on key issues such as tightening migration policy, finance, the labor market and the economy. "We have a joint document that forms the basis of coalition negotiations that will begin next week," announced the leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and probable future chancellor of Germany, Friedrich Merz.

"On the basis of this exploratory document, I will recommend to my party, the CDU, on Monday and to the parliamentary group of the CDU and CSU, also on Monday, to begin talks on forming a coalition with the Social Democrats," Merz added at a joint press conference with his future coalition partners.

SPD co-chairman and parliamentary group leader Lars Klingbeil said the preliminary agreement was "an important first step" towards a coalition government between conservatives and social democrats. CSU leader Markus Söder stressed that there were no winners or losers in the talks, but rather new partners in a future government.

"Our goal is to strengthen Germany's internal and external defence capacity, invest massively in our infrastructure and lay the foundations for long-term and sustainable growth," the future coalition partners say in the agreed document, which considers that "the basis for a stable government is solid financing."

During exploratory talks, conservatives and social democrats have already agreed to create a new special fund of 500 billion euros over the next ten years to invest in infrastructure and increase defence spending.

Border controls

The conservatives and the social democrats have decided to take the bull by the horns on the issue of migration, the favourite of the far right. The future coalition partners have announced a tightening of migration policy in Germany. "We will massively expand border controls from the first day of our collaboration and also significantly increase the number of rejections" at the border in cooperation with European neighbours to reduce irregular migration, explained Merz, who announced a reform of asylum policy. In addition, family reunification for people with subsidiary protection will be suspended and a comprehensive offensive will be launched to return them to their countries of origin.

During the election campaign, the social democrats accused the conservatives of flirting with the far right, after they managed to approve in the Bundestag, the lower house of the German parliament, a five-point migration plan with the votes of the ultras of Alternative for Germany (AfD).

Merz also said that Germany should aim for economic growth above 1% after two years of recession, and promised to cut energy costs and red tape to help businesses.

In foreign policy, "we want to assume responsibilities in Europe and strengthen, together with our partners, the defence capacity and competitiveness of the European Union," the Social Democrats and conservatives also detailed, making it clear that "Germany remains on the side of Ukraine" in the Russian war of aggression.

Government before Easter

The preliminary agreement between the CDU-CSU and SPD takes place Two weeks after the February 23 elections, In Germany, no party has obtained enough votes to form a government on its own, meaning that the conservatives, who won the election, will have to govern in coalition. The far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) is excluded from the future government, despite being the second most voted party, since Merz ruled out an alliance with the extremists to govern. In Germany, the cordon sanitaire or "firewall", as the Germans call it, is still in force against the extreme right. No party is willing to make a pact.

After the pre-agreement announced on Saturday, formal negotiations to form a grand coalition could last several weeks. Merz has set himself the goal of having a government before Easter. In Germany, coalition governments are the rule. Conservatives and Social Democrats are used to governing together. The first grand coalition was formed in 1966. In recent years, Christian Democratic Chancellor Angela Merkel led three grand coalition governments with the SPD. The only difference is that in previous coalition governments the SPD was the second most voted party and now it is the third, behind the far right.

The CDU-CSU won the elections on February 23 with 28.5% of the votes in Germany, ahead of the far right, which obtained 20.8% of the votes. The SPD came in third with 16.4%, followed by the Greens (11.6%) and From the Left (8.7%).