1 week Ago By The Telegraph
Germany is poised to have a coalition government after Friedrich Merz ’s centre-Right CDU party secured an agreement with the centre-Left SPD. Mr Merz, who won last February’s elections, will give a press conference on Wednesday afternoon outlining the terms of the agreement. He is expected to be sworn in as Germany’s next chancellor on May 7.
Merz’s “grand coalition”, also known as GroKo, will consist of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), its Bavarian sister party Christian Social Union (CSU) and the Social Democrats (SPD). It has also been described as the black-red coalition, referring to the party colours of the CDU/CSU and SPD respectively. The far-Right Alternative for Germany, which came second place in the elections, was frozen out of the talks because the CDU and the SPD consider it to be too extreme.
German media reports suggest the announcement will include some tax breaks and reforms on migration , as well as a plan on how to cope with Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff reforms. Sweeping security reform Mr Merz has already passed sweeping security reforms through parliament creating a £500 billion infrastructure package and an end to government spending limits on defence projects. During the campaign trail, Mr Merz vowed that he would turn away asylum seekers en masse from Germany’s land border as soon as he is sworn in as Chancellor.
But that pledge has been watered down over the course of coalition talks with the SPD, which says this would breach EU law. It has insisted neighbouring countries agree to any future land border rejections, which could be difficult to achieve. The swift agreement of the coalition will be welcomed by British and EU leaders, who were wary that previous rounds of German government-forming talks have dragged on for months.
Under the terms of the agreement, the CDU will lead the Chancellery, the interior ministry and the agriculture ministry, as well as the ministry of technology and research. A further four unspecified ministries will also be controlled by the CDU. Boris Pistorius, a popular SPD politician who served in the outgoing government as defence minister, is expected to remain in that role.
The justice and finance ministries will also be led by the SPD, Bild tabloid reported..
