Coalition committee interrupted: SPD, Greens and FDP do not find an agreement – politics

The head of the traffic light coalition met in the chancellery for more than 19 hours. Then the chancellor and several ministers fly to Rotterdam, central conflicts remain unresolved for the time being. Negotiations will continue on Tuesday.

Even after a round of negotiations that lasted more than 19 hours, the traffic light coalition did not initially succeed in clearing up central points of conflict. The meeting of the coalition committee was adjourned early Monday afternoon. It is scheduled to continue on Tuesday. The Chancellor and several ministers left the meeting to fly to previously scheduled government consultations in the Netherlands.

The SPD, Greens and FDP announced that the group had exchanged views “on important modernization issues in our country”. “The parties involved have made good progress in trusting and constructive discussions,” but the meeting was interrupted because of the appointment in Rotterdam. The coalition committee met on Sunday at 6.30 p.m. in the Federal Chancellery. The meeting thus lasted about as long as that at the beginning of September, when the coalition leaders sat together for around 20 hours to put together a large relief package in view of the rise in energy costs.

Around noon, Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) tweeted: “Full of ideas, #lack of sleep – #coalition committee.” In the late morning, government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said about the meeting: “It takes as long as it takes.” But an end is in sight and there will be a good result.

For months, the coalition has been arguing about a whole series of projects and draft laws, which are therefore blocked. One of the most important is the so-called planning acceleration, i.e. the question of whether only railway lines or bridges should be built more quickly or whether new motorways should also be built with less complex environmental protection tests – the SPD and especially the FDP want the latter. A second major area of ​​conflict is climate protection: The Greens are opposed to the suggestion that the CO₂ reduction targets of individual sectors such as transport should be weakened. In addition, they want that from 2024 onwards, no new conventional oil and gas heating systems may be installed in houses. FDP and SPD have concerns here – also out of concern that lower-income homeowners or tenants could be overwhelmed.

The coalition is particularly crossed when it comes to climate protection. The question of accelerating planning should be easier to solve, as the coalition partners are said to have come closer. However, there are many more contentious issues, such as the scope of the reform of basic child security. Because the problem that looms above all is that the federal ministries’ spending requirements are far greater than what could be financed without new borrowing.

After the SPD, Greens and FDP had accused each other of the blockade for weeks and Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck (Greens) made his grudge against the coalition partners public in a remarkable appearance last week, more conciliatory tones could be heard at the end of last week.