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If the board of directors of a company has more than three members, at least one woman must be present in the future.
After years of resistance, the members of the Bundestag from the CDU and CSU recently voted in favor.
With an “overwhelming majority”, as it was then called.
The two had pushed the topic in the past few months.
Thus, the SPD has once again won this legislative period - to the chagrin of many company bosses.
How much the SPD shapes the work of the fourth cabinet of Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) and how little the traditionally business-friendly union is getting through can also be shown in figures.
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The GroKo has already redeemed or at least tackled 56 promises from the Social Democrats' election manifesto; there are only 25 from the CDU.
At least 32 were in both programs.
Even if the Union traditionally names fewer projects in its election manifesto and can therefore remain less guilty, in view of these values it is no wonder that the unions are more satisfied with the work of the government than the employers' side.
Before the election, neither will grant the other a triumph
The count of fulfilled promises by the Democracy Monitor, a joint project of the Bertelsmann Stiftung and the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (WZB), also makes something else clear: Neither side has much to expect from this marriage of convenience.
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One or the other project that has already been initiated may still be implemented, but no party will allow the other side a prestigious triumph before the general election.
What the GroKo still welds together - so the impression - is the pandemic.
"It is already becoming apparent that this coalition will leave more things behind than the previous government," says Robert Vehrkamp, head of studies from the Bertelsmann Foundation.
So far, a good 26 percent of the coalition agreement is still unprocessed.
In 2017, at the end of Chancellor Merkel's third cabinet, also back then the SPD was the partner, the value was 19 percent.
Promises were also counted that were not already in one of the election programs, but that the partners only agreed on during the negotiations.
The results are exclusively available to WELT AM SONNTAG.
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After all, as the researchers point out positively, this GroKo brings to an end what it once tackled more than its predecessor.
By October, 65 percent of the total of 296 promises (including those on which the parties only agreed in the coalition negotiations) had been fully fulfilled, four percent partially, and another four percent had at least been initiated by the government.
In the end, GroKo could implement 70 percent of its promises
"The 'no debt' promise had to be suspended, but important projects such as the basic pension were implemented," says Theres Matthieß, head of the research team at the WZB.
By the time of the federal election, the researchers expect that the rate of promises fulfilled will increase slightly to 70 percent.
“That would be a very good figure,” said Vehrkamp.
The GroKo from 2013 to 2017 had redeemed 64 percent of the promises.
The bottom line is that, in the end, a preponderance of left-wing issues will be ticked off rather than done.
This explains the positive view of the German Trade Union Federation (DGB) on politics since March 2018. It certifies the GroKo “a very good balance sheet”.
In addition to the basic pension, the DGB emphasizes, for example, that employers pay the same contribution to statutory health insurance as employees.
The verdict with regard to the Corona crisis policy is similarly positive: improvements in short-time working benefits, the rescue package, training and tightening of occupational safety were "important cornerstones of fighting pandemics" that saved hundreds of thousands of employees from falling into the abyss.
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However, an SPD heart project, about which the parties have long argued, threatens to fall by the wayside: the regulation of the so-called non-objective time limit.
The problem: Employees are often given fixed-term employment contracts without good reason.
The Social Democrats wanted to put an end to it.
That couldn't be done with the Union.
"The fourth Merkel government reacted a lot, acted little"
In the coalition agreement, the parties then agreed that such a type of time limit should be subject to stricter rules.
The DGB urges that this plan be implemented.
Overall, the conclusion reads like this: a lot of praise, if there is still room for improvement.
One sees it completely differently on the entrepreneur side.
Reinhold von Eben-Worlée, President of the Association of Family Entrepreneurs, does not want to speak of success.
Instead, there is criticism of principle.
“Our country has not been in a better position since the last general election,” he says.
"The fourth Merkel government reacted a lot, acted little, especially in terms of economic policy."
He misses a tax reform, a generational reform of the social security systems and a market economy reform of energy policy.
Rescue policy alone is by no means an economic policy, he complains.
There is great disappointment with Federal Economics Minister Peter Altmaier (CDU).
He had caused annoyance with the draft of his “National Industrial Strategy” because he promised support to the large corporations - but lost sight of the middle class.
"This planned economy and protectionist wrong path of the Federal Minister of Economics would have permanently damaged Germany's competitiveness," says von Eben-Worlée to this day.
Coalition fatigue is increasing
That is not forgotten, even if the minister has revised his plans.
At the beginning of the legislative period, the CDU tried to compensate for the concessions made to the SPD in the coalition agreement by a CDU man at the head of the ministry.
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The plan did not work out.
Only one Altmaier venture surprised positively: to start a European cloud with GAIA-X in order to achieve European data sovereignty.
After all - from the point of view of entrepreneurs - Chancellor Merkel is currently slowing down the legislative proposals for supply chains and working from home with reference to the economic crisis.
To this end, talks would have to be held so that “solutions can be found that do not damage the competitiveness of the economy”, she said this week.
Prevent, don't shape.
There has been coalition fatigue for a long time, as the Democracy Monitor shows.
Since the last count in September 2019, the GroKo has hardly tackled any new projects.
Promises like that of a dense network of charging stations for e-cars will have to be included again in the next government's specifications.
This text is from WELT AM SONNTAG. We will be happy to deliver them to your home on a regular basis.
Source: Welt am Sonntag