Germans were promised a new government in time for Christmas, and as the festive lights twinkle on the fir trees in Berlin's political district, they've almost got one. Germany's environmentalist Greens announced on Monday that its members had agreed to enter a coalition with the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) and the neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP), Deutsche Welle reports.
Now the three parties have approved the coalition agreement, this rather disparate political grouping will be sworn in on Wednesday and the era of Angela Merkel will officially give way to a new age under Social Democrat Olaf Scholz.
The "traffic light coalition" is named after the colours of the parties involved: the Social Democrats (red) who champion fair society, the Free Democrats (yellow) who champion business and industry, and the Greens.
They will have to hit the ground running, with Germany in the grip of an aggressive fourth Covid wave, and increasingly tight restrictions on public life.
The three parties held two months of intense negotiations following September's election. They presented their plans in Berlin on November 24, under the title "Dare more progress."
Some of the key points of a coalition that plans to serve as an "alliance for freedom, justice, and sustainability" include:
· Introducing a minimum wage of €12 ($13.55) per hour;
· Make housing affordable, capping rent increases more tightly and building 400,000 new homes a year, including 100,000 using public funds;
· Relieving electricity customers by no longer having the billion-euro renewable energy surcharge financed on electricity bills;
· Establishing a new Federal Ministry for Construction and expanding the Ministry of Economics to include climate protection;
· Obtaining 80% of Germany's electricity from renewable energies by 2030;
· Lowering the voting age to 16;
· Legalizing the recreational use of cannabis.
The new government will replace the grand coalition of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the SPD — the two largest party blocs in parliament, who have dominated German politics since the end of World War II.