In Saxony-Anhalt the greatest potential obstacle on the way to a “Germany” coalition of CDU, SPD and FDP has been removed.

The Social Democrats announced on Saturday after the counting of their membership decision in Magdeburg that the party base had approved the coalition agreement presented with 63.4 percent.

Around 60 percent of the 3300 members of the regional association took part in the decision, which is a record.

Reinhard Bingener

Political correspondent for Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Bremen based in Hanover.

  • Follow I follow

The SPD party base was seen as the greatest threat to the planned formation of a government, as the state association had been fermenting for years and the SPD fell below the ten percent mark for the first time in the state elections in June, at 8.4 percent.

However, the party leadership had already been optimistic and hoped for an approval of around 60 percent.

At the regional conferences in recent weeks, the SPD leadership was able to point out that it had wrested a tariff loyalty law from the CDU and FDP in the coalition negotiations.

In addition, the SPD continues to keep two ministries, while the FDP, with its 6.4 percent, only receives one.

However, the social democratic science minister Armin Willingmann has to hand over responsibility for economics to the CDU.

In return, he receives the areas of energy, environment and climate protection.

Internal party criticism

There was criticism from within the party about the planned “Germany” coalition. The former state chairman Burkhard Lischka criticized the negotiation results of his successors and voted against the submitted contract. The youth of the party criticized the fact that the SPD would have to deal with the two “neoliberal” parties CDU and FDP in the future, after another left force was involved in the government in the previous “Kenya” coalition with the Greens. The internal party disputes, however, were not nearly as sharp as after the state elections in 2016, in which the SPD fell even more strongly in favor of the voters.

Before the re-election of Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff (CDU), which is planned for September 16, the CDU and FDP still have to approve the coalition agreement. The CDU is currently running a membership decision that ends on Tuesday and the result of which is to be announced on Friday. At the FDP, a party congress will decide on Friday. Both parties are very likely to agree. The CDU achieved an excellent result in the election with 37.1 percent and is moving into the new legislative period stronger than before. Under top candidate Lydia Hüskens, the FDP succeeded in re-entering the Magdeburg state parliament after ten years.