Dear friends, dear interested,
The coalition negotiations for the first traffic light coalition at the federal level in Germany have now started. In the coming weeks, we will discuss all the issues for the joint government, build bridges and resolve conflicts in 22 specialized working groups. In addition to members of the Bundestag, party representatives and Greens from the federal states, 11 Green members of the European Parliament are also represented in the working groups (Here is the full list).
As the spokesperson for the German Green MEPs, I am particularly pleased about this, because it means that Europe will be a key part of the negotiations on a broad range of topics. In addition to the specialist working group on financial market regulation, budget and taxation, I will also be part of the 10-member main negotiating team that will tie all the threads together from November 10 and weave a strong coalition agreement out of it for the next 4 years. I will negotiate hard for Europe and a social-ecological transformation and I am excited about this opportunity.
The guiding principles for these negotiations are defined by the exploratory paper that the three parties presented last Monday. If you missed my webinar on the paper, you can check it out here: https://sven-giegold.de/en/webinar-traffic-light-coalition/
In just 5 hours, over 200 people spontaneously joined in on Monday! In the webinar and also in the days since the publication, we have received many confident but also concerned letters from citizens and civil society, not only from Germany. It is clear – and I describe this in detail in the webinar – that this paper reflects the election results and cannot be a purely green program.
Particularly on the subject of taxes, it pains me that more was not possible with the other parties. For the Liberals, tax increases even for the very wealthy were not acceptable. At the same time, however, we have achieved a great deal on the issue of tax evasion, tax avoidance and money laundering, and thus have a real opportunity to recoup billions here for public investment and tax justice. In the case of the Citizens’ Pension Fund, our public alternative to overpriced private pension products, I would have liked to see much more than the review mandate in the paper, even though this is an important first step. In the specialist working group on financial market regulation, the budget and taxes, I will work hard to ensure that we now get as much out of it as possible.
It is only understandable that Fridays for Future and the environmental associations are putting pressure on the negotiators now, as they will today, through the climate strike, so that, for example, the commitment to 1.5°C is followed by the necessary measures. This is what we are working for in the negotiations!
The negotiations will also fill all the gaps that the exploratory paper deliberately left. There is still a lot to be done on agriculture, biodiversity and much more. I am confident that in the end we will have a good coalition agreement, but it will certainly be tough negotiations. Many thanks to everyone, whether citizens or associations, who are supporting us here.
I would like to end with a big thank you to my colleagues in Brussels who are taking over legislative projects and work processes during the coalition negotiations so that I can negotiate at full strength for Europe in Berlin. This is European-Green solidarity in action!
In anticipation and with European greetings,
Yours and yours Sven Giegold
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Link to the negotiation teams (in German): Link