The Green Party and the business-friendly Free Democrats plan to hold exploratory talks with each other before meeting with the main chancellor candidates in the coming days. They appear to be worlds apart but are already finding some common ground.
At a Monday press conference, German Green Party leaders were asked
whether they would be able to explain to the business-friendly Free
Democratic Party (FDP) that money is an artificial concept but that CO2
emissions are very real. The assumption behind the question was clear:
Good luck! But Green Party leader Robert Habeck had a different take:
"Following the election, people are now taking a new look. And I
wouldn't exclude us from that. We can also reconsider certain issues and
perhaps weigh the arguments of others in a more relaxed way.” He said
he was very hopeful.
FDP leader Christian Lindner also continued Monday with the message he
initiated on election night: measured praise for the potential coalition
partner. The Union (CDU/CSU) and the Social Democrats (SPD) are not
parties of change, he said. In talks between his party and the Greens,
it would therefore be necessary to examine "whether, despite all the
differences, this could become the progressive center of a new coalition
government," even if that seems like a bit of a stretch.
What a difference a day makes: In the run-up to Sunday’s election,
the Greens and FDP had largely scorned and criticized each other.
Lindner scoffed at the Green Party’s fantasy world, and former Green
Party chair Cem Özdemir lashed out at the economically laissez faire
FDP’s über-faith in technology for solving the climate change problem.
But
once it became clear after the polls closed that both Armin Laschet of
the CDU and Olaf Scholz of the SPD would need the FDP and the Greens if
either wanted to become chancellor, the tone changed. It began on
election night with cautious flirtation, but after the parties’
committee meetings on Monday, it’s starting to look a lot more like open
courting.
Der Spiegel
© Der Spiegel
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