45 days after the Bundestag elections, the CDU/CSU and SPD have agreed on a joint coalition agreement. They are expected to give details in a joint press conference this afternoon.
Who gets which ministry?
According to media reports, the central ministries have already been distributed. The Social Democrats are getting the finance ministry, the defense ministry and the justice ministry. The CDU/CSU will get the interior ministry and the foreign ministry, Politico and Bild reported. and "Reuters".
Here are some of the names being discussed for the ministries: according to media reports, Lars Klingbeil (SPD) could become finance minister and vice chancellor. Johann Wadepaul (CDU) could be the next foreign minister, and Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) could be the new interior minister. Boris Pistorius (SPD) could remain defense minister, writes German public broadcaster ZDF.
According to the "Handelsblatt" newspaper, the CDU/CSU and the SPD are not planning a tax increase. And the corporate tax will be reduced, but only on January 1, 2028.
The CDU/CSU won the elections, but they cannot do without a coalition partner
In the past few days, the CDU/CSU and the SPD have argued fiercely about the course of migration policy, as well as on issues such as taxes and pensions. Individual CDU representatives warned Friedrich Merz not to back down from his campaign promise of "policy change" by making concessions to the SPD.
In the Bundestag elections, which were held on February 23, the CDU/CSU were the winners with 28.6% of the vote. However, they were dependent on a coalition partner to secure a majority in the Bundestag. The CDU, CSU and SPD have started coalition negotiations in different working groups. The points of contention have been discussed in the main negotiating group over the past twelve days.
This would be the fifth consecutive grand coalition in Germany. The country was last governed by the so-called GroKo (short for Große Koalition) from 2018 to 2021, when Angela Merkel was Chancellor. The same coalition also governed from 2013 to 2018, as well as from 2005 to 2009, when Merkel was Chancellor as well. A grand coalition was first formed in 1966. It governed until 1969 with Chancellor Kurt-Georg Kissinger.