German Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) has underlined her willingness to hold talks with the new SPD leadership, but has refused to renegotiate the coalition agreement.
The Chancellor is basically ready for cooperation and discussion, „as is usual in a coalition,“ said government spokesman Steffen Seibert today in Berlin. At the same time he stressed: „A renegotiation of the coalition agreement is not on.“
CDU leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer had previously already rejected the desire of the future SPD leadership after renegotiations of the coalition agreement. „We are not a therapy facility for the respective coalition government parties,“ she said today in the ZDF „Morgenmagazin“.
The coalition agreement is the „foundation on which we work“ and is valid for the entire legislative period. „That’s what we focus on and not on the sensitivities of one or the other coalition partner.“
New leadership duo of the SPD critical to „GroKo“
Surprisingly, Saskia Esken and Norbert Walter-Borjans had prevailed against their competitors Klara Geywitz and Olaf Scholz in the SPD-based membership survey on the future party leadership. Both are critics of the grand coalition, in Germany also called „GroKo“. They want to enforce improvements to the coalition agreement, for example on climate protection and investment. Yesterday evening, however, they also said they did not want to recommend their party to an immediate exit from the coalition.
The party congress from Friday to Sunday in Berlin should formalize Walter Borjans and Esken into office and elect the other members of the party leadership. The further treatment of the coalition will be a central theme of the delegates‘ meeting.
