Europe can count on Germany, guarantees the future German chancellor in the presentation of the coalition agreement between its CDU and the SPD. New government is expected to be sworn in early May. Among the main negotiated points, there is a free trade agreement with the US and highlighting permanent German troops on the eastern flank of NATO. Discord remains the reactivation of some nuclear power plants
It was more than six weeks of negotiations, and were it not for Donald Trump’s tariffs on European exports to the US, the announcement of a coalition agreement for the formation of a new government in Germany would not have been this Wednesday. , political analyst with well-placed sources in Berlin, there were plans for the CDU-SPD coalition to be presented on April 20-but with the transatlantic trade war, it became impossible to continue to postpone.
As he has been reported by several German media and Reuters, shortly after 14:00 in Continental Portugal Friedrich Merz, the conservative CDU leader, he climbed a stage in Berlin to present the final agreement. “We will have a strong government and capable of acting,” he assured journalists, hours after, minutes after the EU has reached the negotiations with the US administration do not run in. “Europe can count on Germany,” said Merz.
After more than six weeks of harsh negotiations, CDU and SPD have reached an agreement to try to return some political stability to Germany at a time of high geopolitical and financial instability. The great concession to social democrats was the finance portfolio, which goes to SPD leader Lars Klingbeil, a position that will accumulate with Merz’s deputy chancellor. The announcement was marked, even before starting, which, for the first time, places the alternative to Germany (AFD, far right) in the first place among voters.
As had already been reported, CDU/CSU gets the economy and foreign business folders and the SPD with finances and defense. Asked if Boris Pistorius will keep this last folder, Klingbeil said decisions about SPD ministers will be made only after the party approves the coalition agreement.
The new government is expected to take office in early May, after all the process and proofs to approve the agreement now announced. Without commitment to the country’s, the two parties were able to achieve commitments in a series of other points, related to taxes, the energy sector, defense and commerce.
Among the points of the agreement stand out those related to relations with the United States and war in Ukraine, as reported by Reuters based on the document distributed to journalists in Berlin:
- Closing a medium -term free trade agreement with the US and reducing customs rates on both sides of the Atlantic – “Relations with the US is of the utmost importance” and “success history should continue under new conditions”
- Park German soldiers permanently in Lithuania, “fundamental to the defense of the eastern flank of the NATO”
- Support Ukraine Adhesion to NATO
- Create Voluntary Military Service Modality
Alongside this, SPD and CDU reached an agreement in the area of migration to:
- reject asylum applicants on terrestrial borders, in coordination with neighboring countries
- Deport people to Syria, starting with condemned criminals and potentially dangerous people.
- suspend for two years the reunification of families of people with subsidiary protection status
- end all federal refugee admission programs and not create new programs
- Abolish the “turbo naturalization” of migrants after three years, a measure implemented by the SPD, but keeping in force the reforms of citizenship.
Here are the other main points of the agreement reached today in Berlin:
- Introduction of new incentives for the acquisition of electric cars
- Abolition of gas storage surcharge
- adoption of a legislative package to allow carbon capture and storage (CCS), including for gas -powered power plants
- Reduction of electricity and power grid tax to decrease electricity bill by at least 5 cents per kW/h
- Reintroduce tax reductions for diesel in agriculture
- Bet on the production of conventional natural gas in Germany
- introduce incentives to reach 20 gigawatts of capacity in the power and gas centers up to 2030
- Boost industrial investment with ingressive reductions of 30% in 2025, 2026 and 2027
- create a commission of experts on the modernization of the brake to the debt and to complete legislation by 2025
- Reduce Business Tax (IRC) by 1% per year for five years from 2028
- budgetary consolidation plan, including cuts in voluntary financing of international organizations
