Berlin – The coalition negotiations can begin: after the SPD and the Greens agreed on the weekend, the FDP also decided on Monday to clear the way. From now on, it’s not just about content, but also about posts.
The dispute over the chief position in the finance ministry is the first to be carried out openly. At the weekend, the FDP had already sent some politicians who spoke out in favor of their own party leader as finance minister. The parliamentary manager of the Bundestag faction, Marco Buschmann, declared that Lindner was exactly the right person for the office. That is what the Green Finance Minister of Schleswig-Holstein, Monika Heinold, said about Robert Habeck. The Green boss has been Lindner’s direct competitor for this post since the hot election phase.
Lindner himself put on the ARD again: “There is the Federal Chancellery, there is the Ministry of Finance, there is a new Ministry of Climate,” he said. “And I am of the opinion that each of the partners must have the opportunity to have a creative impact.” It must be said that, at least officially, nothing is known about a “new climate ministry”.
The Greens reacted a little unnerved to the debate. MEP Sven Giegold praised the cooperative style of negotiation during the explorations at the party’s regional council on Sunday, including on the subject of financial policy. However, this is “endangered by cheeky interviews on item discussions”. He had previously spoken out in favor of the Greens “taking the measures against money laundering and subsidy fraud into their own hands”.
There is speculation not only about the occupation of ministries, but above all about the reorganization at the top of the Bundestag. This convenes in exactly two weeks for its constituent session and then elects a new President of the Bundestag. The previous incumbent Wolfgang Schäuble will no longer be, because the SPD, as the largest parliamentary group, has the right to propose it. At the weekend, the chairman of the SPD, Norbert Walter-Borjans, brought the current parliamentary group leader of the SPD, Rolf Mützenich, into play.
This is also not averse at all. But there is a catch: If Mützenich becomes President of the Bundestag, then the most important state offices would only be occupied by men. Olaf Scholz has been appointed as Chancellor and Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has already made his wish for a second term in office clear, which cannot be ignored without further ado.
It was not only among the SPD women that there was an expectation that the top position in parliament would go to a comrade. The Working Group of Social Democratic Women (AsF) described this as “imperative”. The Hamburg member of the Bundestag and former integration commissioner in the Chancellery, Aydan Özoguz, was in discussion for a long time for this post. Now it is said from the SPD that there are doubts as to whether it is up to the office. The variant that the Greens will have a woman as President of the Bundestag is considered rather unlikely. In this context, the name Katrin Göring-Eckardt is often mentioned. But she is also repeatedly traded as a candidate for the next federal presidential election. It is quite possible that the SPD will delay the conflict with the party’s women until May. Then there is the election of the Federal President. Open end.
Olaf Scholz had announced that he wanted to at least set up his cabinet equally. It’s actually not that ambitious, after all, Chancellor Angela Merkel has even come close to achieving it. If you add the two ministers of state Monika Grütters and Dorothee Bär, there are currently eight women to nine men in her cabinet.
New federal government: where are the women?
Nevertheless, the FDP excelled on Monday with the demand that the filling of the ministerial posts should not depend on quotas but on qualifications. The background is obvious. Women are few and far between, especially among the Liberals. The FDP has just 24 percent female MPs in its parliamentary group. This is only undercut by the Union (23 percent) and the AfD (13 percent). If the posts are now distributed, the ambitious FDP men do not want to go empty-handed just to demonstrate gender equality. “If you want to reflect social reality in the cabinet, it of course makes sense to have ministers in the cabinet equally,” said FDP MP Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann. But first and foremost, professional competence must play a role, and only then does membership of a gender play a role.
After all, there is a woman under discussion with Strack-Zimmermann, who is also on the federal executive committee of her party, who could become defense minister. Among the soldiers deployed in Afghanistan who were invited to a reception in the Bundestag last week, she was – according to a non-representative survey by the Berliner Zeitung – as the preferred candidate.
But that could collide with the plans of, or more precisely for Lars Klingbeil. The SPD general secretary, who is considered one of the architects of the election victory, was also present at the big tattoo. “That was a very special date for me,” he wrote on Instagram and defended the march in front of the Reichstag against criticism: “That’s exactly how it has to be!” Or maybe it has to be that he becomes parliamentary group leader when Mützenich vacates the post. Klingbeil belongs to the conservative Seeheimer Kreis in the SPD and could hold the government majority together for Olaf Scholz. But another Seeheimer would be available for this: Carsten Schneider. The Erfurt MP and previous Parliamentary Managing Director is also trusted to switch to the cabinet – for example as Minister of the Chancellery.
Personnel rumors at the SPD: is an old friend coming back?
Two more names can be added to the list of speculations: Boris Pistorius and – Andrea Nahles. Olaf Scholz is closely associated with her. He recently said that he could imagine bringing the former party leader back into politics. Allegedly there was a deal between the two after she threw in 2019 as party and parliamentary leader that she – should he become chancellor – come back. Possibly also as Minister of Labor. Hartz IV wanted to abolish it back then, and campaigned for the citizens’ money now provided for in the coalition paper. Nahles is currently completely out of politics, she is President of the Federal Agency for Post and Telecommunications in Bonn. Boris Pistorius has been Minister of the Interior in Lower Saxony since 2013 and is considered objective and competent. He could well make the leap to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, say comrades.
Given the long list of speculations, rumors about the Greens look pretty thin. There are hardly any. So far, no more than arguing about a green finance minister Robert Habeck has been elicited. And that was more of a reaction to the brisk FDP. Who else will become what in the Scholz cabinet – very unpredictable. It is clear, however, that Annalena Baerbock will also play a prominent role. She may have made mistakes in the election campaign, but is still popular in the party. This was shown by the furious applause with which the delegates reacted on Sunday to their closing speech at the state council.
But now the negotiations will continue.
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