The first days of a new progress coalition

The Progressive Coalition

The first days of the new government triggered much applause among political commentators. The highly confidential coalition negotiations, some surprising personnel changes, and the reflective start in pandemic response, including the achievement of the ambitious goal of 30 million vaccinations by the end of the year. New governments have often experienced a severe setback in the first few weeks. Many a state election has thus turned into a surprising reckoning with the ruling parties. Currently, however, the polls look very stable for the traffic light parties. What is the reason for this? And will it continue?

Unresolved conflicts and clarified roles

The three parties, SPD, Bündnis’90 | Die Grüne and FDP, understood that a coalition alliance based on tiny, joint compromises would not meet the demands and expectations of the German public and media and would quickly cause disappointment. That is why, for the first time, an attempt was made to take a different path and complement each other. In this way, each coalition partner should be able to fulfill its own role and achieve its priority goals. To this end, they want to put together a political progress alliance for a period of eight years. The Greens are promoting climate change and thus the energy transformation of the economy, industry, mobility and buildings, as close as possible to the 1.5 degree target, even if this will probably be missed with the present coalition agreement. The FDP sees itself as a driver of the digitization of administration, society and the economy. In addition, with Christian Lindner it will provide the man who wants to watch the money and limit debt. The SPD, on the other hand, can ensure that the social consequences of the various transformations do not organize new descents. By raising the minimum wage, regulating platform work, guaranteeing social security systems, and accompanying the transformation by providing qualifications and security for the employees affected, it also wants to ensure acceptance of these changes. The ministries were assigned according to these roles.

Nevertheless, many conflicts remain unresolved and are often only hinted at in the coalition agreement. Some conflicts will also overtake this coalition. The discussion about taxonomy showed this around the turn of the year. Obviously, the “Grünen” now gradually understand that they are entering a very conflict-laden political field and need more allies than just the climate movement. To deny Macron success around nuclear energy shortly before the French presidential elections was obviously out of the question for many Europeans. The German side, with its fight against natural gas but for Nord Stream II and against nuclear energy, had put itself on the defensive in terms of negotiations, almost isolating itself.