Germany’s Greens Consider Climate Change Priority In Coalition Talks, Leaders Say

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Germany’s Green Party will consider climate change the most important “topic of interest” during talks to possibly form part of a coalition with Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) Party, according to party leaders.

Image by Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung (some rights reserved)

As the CDU/CSU only managed to capture around 32.9% of votes in this year’s election (down from 41.5% in the last federal election), it will be necessary for it to form a coalition with multiple other parties if a viable government is to be formed.

Since the Social Democratic Party (SPD) had its worst showing ever, only receiving 20.5% of the vote, and has promised to lead the opposition; and third place (12.6%) was captured by Alternative For Germany (AfD), a party that Merkel has promised not to join a coalition with; there really aren’t many options for the formation of coalition. This means that the Greens might actually have a slight amount of leverage in negotiations, rather than none at all.

To provide a bit more data here, the Free Democratic Party (FDP) won 10.7% of the vote, The Left won 9.1%, and The Greens won 9%. The two main parties (CDU/CSU and SPD) both saw their share of the overall vote drop substantially in this election cycle, with support for AfD and FDP surging, and The Left and The Greens made slight gains. Accompanying these results, there seems to have been a huge surge in support for marginal parties of various kinds, though none won any seats.

Reuters provides a bit more: “Germany’s Green party said on Monday one of its main conditions for participating in any future coalition government will be ensuring that Europe’s biggest economy fulfills its obligations as part of the Paris climate accord.

“Cem Ozdemir, co-leader of the Greens, told a news conference the party would focus on climate change, Europe and social justice in coalition talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel after Sunday’s federal election.

“Taking aim at the liberal Free Democrats, who campaigned against deeper European integration as proposed by French President Emmanuel Macron, Ozdemir said Europe would not solve its problems with austerity policies alone.”

Overall, the political situation in Germany has become much more interesting, and no doubt acrimonious as well — especially when you consider that the country is essentially the de-facto leader of the European Union. It’ll be interesting to see what happens.


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James Ayre

James Ayre's background is predominantly in geopolitics and history, but he has an obsessive interest in pretty much everything. After an early life spent in the Imperial Free City of Dortmund, James followed the river Ruhr to Cofbuokheim, where he attended the University of Astnide. And where he also briefly considered entering the coal mining business. He currently writes for a living, on a broad variety of subjects, ranging from science, to politics, to military history, to renewable energy.

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