Germany’s grand coalition sealed

Two months after winning the national elections, the governing CDU (Christian Democratic Union), its Bavarian sister-party the Christian Social Union (CSU), and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), have finalized a coalition agreement for the formation of a new German government.
The deal was finalized on Wednesday after a 17-hour long session completing five weeks of tense negotiations. This will be Chancellor’s Angela Merkel’s third term in office.
In September this year, the CDU and CSU gained their best federal election results since 1990, just five seats short of a parliamentary majority. However, the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), the conservatives’ traditional coalition partners, failed to surmount the five-percent hurdle needed to enter parliament, for the first time in the party’s post-war history, forcing Merkel to look to her rival SPD as a coalition partner.
The SPD was reluctant to enter into coalition talks with the CDU because the two parties were in a grand coalition from 2005 to 2009, which cost the SPD many votes. This has caused the left wing of the SPD to oppose another grand coalition unless the party’s interests are fully represented to the extent, which they expect.
The most contentious issues in the negotiations were taxes, a country-wide minimum wage, a reform of dual citizenship laws, pensions, a lower retirement age, and tolls for foreign vehicles on German roads. The key concessions are that the tax raise demands of the SPD will be abandoned, but that a nationwide minimum wage of €8.50 will probably come into effect in 2015, despite strong opposition from the CDU/CSU.
Sigmar Gabriel, the SPD’s party leader, said at today’s press conference: “We kept Europe in mind. In our talks it was made sure that Germany remains a respected leader for its policies in Europe”. CDU secretary-general Herman Groehe said that the work is now complete: “The talks were very intense. Today, I think we have a result that is good for our country, which is the main issue, but we can also say the result has a strong conservative imprint”.
“I am very happy that the two parties have managed to reach an agreement. This is important for the stability of our country,” said Dieter Haller, Germany’s Ambassador in Riyadh, “and I am confident that it will cover all important points for the country”.
“German voters voted for this coalition and I am sure that the parties will make all the coalition succeed,” said Guenther, working for a multinational company in Jeddah “despite all the differences and issues, Germany is doing well compared with other European countries”.
Heike Matheis, an accountant working in Saudi Arabia, believes that new elections have never been an option, because the outcome would have been unsatifactory for the country.
Ministerial posts are expected to be announced may be next month. It is expected that the SPD will get six ministerial posts, the CDU six and the CSU three. Most likely, the SPD will get the foreign ministry and trade, while the CDU will hold on to finance and the interior.