Berlin – In the Union, the mood was in the basement on Wednesday. After an internal meeting, the Greens had just spoken out in favor of exploratory traffic light talks, and then the FDP followed suit an hour later – and suddenly the signs were pointing to a possible red-green-liberal coalition, which on Tuesday was not yet entirely set in stone was. The talks should now begin on Thursday, said FDP leader Christian Lindner. He made this offer to SPD Chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz. This said frankly.
The cuddling time of the preliminary explorations is over. They are no longer sniffed. Negotiations are now under way. The FDP, which had made advances to the Union in one-on-one discussions, has turned around – although just days ago Lindner lacked any imagination for a traffic light coalition, as he often repeated in the election campaign.
The Greens, who only met with the CDU and CSU on Tuesday, rowed back to the SPD, where they always wanted to go. During the election campaign, they made no secret of the fact that they would like to form a coalition with their comrades. Of course, the question now remains whether one of the parties will not pull out again. Lindner has already kept a back door open – Jamaica is not off the table, he said on Wednesday. Green leader Robert Habeck also kept it open for his party – but not quite as decidedly.
After the indiscretions, the Greens made a decision
In the case of the Greens, their decision for the first traffic light talks may also have been due to the fact that internals from their meeting with the Union on Tuesday had also been divulged to the media again. They had acknowledged this with a shake of the head and reacted accordingly angry – like the FDP earlier this week. Union politicians had pierced information there for the first time. The CSU regional group chairman Alexander Dobrindt said on Wednesday that it was “not wise and unattractive”.
It is another low blow for the Union – because now the opposition beckons. And the political future of CDU leader Armin Laschet will soon be over, too, say many in the party. He had linked Jamaica to hope for its own political survival. Laschet, who handed over his post of prime minister to Hendrick Wüst in the Düsseldorf state parliament on Wednesday, reacted quite stoically: For him, Jamaica is not off the table, he said. The decision on the order of the exploratory talks lies with the Greens and the FDP.
CSU boss Markus Söder: We are not on the substitute bench
CSU boss Markus Söder, who almost seemed offended, reacted quite differently. Söder spoke in Munich of a “de facto rejection” of a Jamaica coalition. “Today is the signal for the preliminary decision, which must be recognized. “A traffic light coalition made up of the SPD, Greens and FDP is now the“ clear number one ”. However, he also warned the liberals not to fool themselves into waiting for them. It is also about “self-respect” for the Union, the CDU and CSU could not stand by in a permanent waiting loop. He is not ready to sit on the bench.
Söder, who is said to have the ambition to run as candidate for chancellor in four years’ time, did not comment on Wednesday about votes from the CDU calling for a repositioning there after the election defeat. That was a sister party affair, he said. Söder went on to say, however, that “a new period of time begins for the Union, for which one now has to prepare”. For many, it is clear: the realignment will be due at the latest when coalition negotiations for a traffic light begin after the explorations. Then the Union begins to move chairs.