Green co-leader Robert Habeck has criticized the debate started by FDP politicians about the occupation of the finance ministry as “not helpful”. “It is part of fairness, good manners and political wisdom not to do that now. In case of doubt, you only increase your own height,” said Habeck on Sunday evening in the ARD program “Report from Berlin”. The German Greens had previously voted for coalition negotiations with the SPD and the FDP.
Habeck reacted to statements by the deputy FDP chairman Wolfgang Kubicki and the parliamentary manager of the FDP parliamentary group, Marco Buschmann. Both had stated that they consider FDP leader Christian Lindner to be the best candidate for the office of German finance minister. Habeck said that Lindner had never made a secret of the fact that he wanted to become finance minister, and that he made this more than clear in the election campaign. But it is not helpful to start speculating on personnel now – even before the coalition negotiations begin.
“We have very different ideas about financial policy. The competition is there, no question about it. The confidence that it will then happen as agreed has yet to be proven, also in the coalition talks,” emphasized Habeck. He himself always put “all personal ambitions of people including myself” on the back burner. “I pat on the fingers of everyone who twitches. That’s why I can say for my shop that we won’t do that.”
Meanwhile, Lindner spoke out against public discussions about ministerial posts, but again signaled interest in the Ministry of Finance. “Only one thing is important to me, each of the three partners must be able to work, must be able to exert an influence,” said Lindner on Sunday evening in the ARD program “Report from Berlin”. “There is the Federal Chancellery, there is the Finance Ministry, there is a new Climate Ministry. And I believe that each of the partners must have the opportunity to have a creative impact.”
At a small party conference on Sunday in Berlin, the delegates of the Greens voted with a large majority to start talks to form a joint German federal government with the SPD and FDP. Of the 70 delegates who were entitled to vote, according to party information, two voted no, there was one abstention. This means that only the approval of the FDP leadership is pending on Monday. It is expected that the responsible bodies of the Liberals will follow suit and thus enable coalition negotiations. The SPD executive board had already cleared the way for coalition negotiations to begin on Friday. The Social Democrats would provide the Chancellor in the alliance with Olaf Scholz.
On Sunday evening in the ZDF program “Berlin direkt” he rejected the accusation that no answer to the question of the financial viability of the plans had been provided during the traffic light explorations. It is about a great departure, the modernization of the country, said SPD Chancellor candidate Scholz. To a large extent, it is a question of enabling private sector investments. But it is also clear that additional funds must be made available for public investments. “So it’s about combining things correctly,” emphasized Scholz. “What we have set ourselves is to operate very solidly and at the same time to bring about a decade of investments in Germany, both privately and publicly.”