Center-left party approves German coalition deal, paving the way for
Merz to be elected chancellor
[April 30, 2025]
BERLIN (AP) — Germany ’s center-left Social Democrats have
approved a deal to join a new coalition government, paving the way for
parliament to elect conservative leader Friedrich Merz as the country’s
new chancellor.
The party of outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholtz will join a coalition led
by Merz’s center-right Christian Democratic Union and its Bavarian
sister party, the Christian Social Union, which won Germany’s election
in February with 28.5%.
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Olaf Scholz, German Chancellor of the Social Democratic Party (SPD),
left, and Friedrich Merz, right, leader of the Christian Democratic
Union (CDU), are pictured in tv studio ahead of a debate in Berlin,
Germany, Feb. 19, 2025. (Fabrizio Bensch/Pool Photo via AP, File) |
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The Social Democrats suffered their worst result since World War
II, finishing third with just 16.4% of the vote. But the
conservatives need their support to assemble a parliamentary
majority without the far-right, anti-immigration Alternative for
Germany, which finished second.
The Social Democrats put a coalition agreement reached in early
April to an online ballot of their 358,000-plus members, who
voted over the last two weeks. The party’s youth wing had come
out against the deal.
The party announced Wednesday that 56% of their members voted in
the poll, of which 84.6% cast their ballots in favor.
The deal gives the Social Democrats the crucial finance, justice
and defense ministries, among others. The CDU and CSU previously
approved the agreement.
The lower house of the German parliament will meet on May 6 to
elect Merz as the country’s 10th leader since World War II.
The coalition aims to spur economic growth, ramp up defense
spending, take a tougher approach to migration and catch up on
long-neglected modernization for the 27-nation European Union’s
most populous member. Germany has the continent’s biggest
economy.
The coalition has a relatively modest majority, with 328 of the
Bundestag’s 630 seats.
The Union and Social Democrats have governed Germany together
before: once in the 1960s, and then in three of the four terms
of former Chancellor Angela Merkel, who led the country from
2005 to 2021.
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