It's a warm Wednesday morning in Washington and Olaf Scholz is talking about the turn of the year.

The Federal Minister of Finance stands in front of the White House, in the background a few hundred people are demonstrating against fossil fuels, and Scholz is asked about the formation of a government.

He praised the “very good and constructive” atmosphere of the exploratory talks and then said: “And that’s why I’m sure that the plan that all three parties who are exploring here together can also be realized, namely that we have one before Christmas have a new government. ”Everyone would do their job at the New Year's address, which is traditionally given by the Chancellor.

Mona Jaeger

Deputy Editor in Charge of News.

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Eckart Lohse

Head of the parliamentary editorial office in Berlin.

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Then he adds a little message to the FDP.

Through the agreed introduction of a global minimum tax, which will also be discussed at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund meeting in Washington, Germany will have billions of additional revenues “without a tax increase”.

This is "simply by making the global tax collection fairer and better".

How convenient.

Changeover after 16 years of Merkel

Scholz, the finance minister, wants to become chancellor.

"Hello, dear Minister," said Scholz a few hours earlier on Tuesday afternoon in the Air Force Airbus A340-300, while still on the ground in Berlin.

Scholz's goal is clear.

There shouldn't be too many flights with this address.

The flight readiness staff will have to adapt after 16 years of Merkel.

A few clouds drifted in the sunny afternoon sky, but not so many that the capital in the north of BER would not have been easy to see.

The Social Democratic candidate for Chancellor had just sat there and explored the possibilities of forming a government with the Greens and the FDP.

The three traffic light partners were in good shape, had negotiated all Monday, carried out very little with great discipline and met again on Tuesday.

Then the most important SPD negotiator's trip to America forced the format to be changed.

We have to continue talking in a very small group until Friday.

Place of triumph for the finance minister

Olaf Scholz still does not have a coalition that will elect him as Chancellor.

In a much more functional building than the White House, work is being carried out to ensure that it gets this far: in the Berlin CityCube, a trade fair building with neon lights and many escalators.

Saskia Esken and Norbert Walter-Borjans were once elected party chairmen there - and not Scholz.

Now the building is to become a place of triumph for the finance minister.

On Tuesday, after another round of explorations, the SPD and the Greens happily said that they had “set out on the road together”.

Volker Wissing, General Secretary of the FDP, was more skeptical.

The "moment of truth" is still ahead.

The parties are currently sitting together and discussing.

It should then be clarified on Friday whether coalition negotiations will start soon.

So while Scholz is on the move in world politics, the text work is done in Berlin.

There should be a paper on Friday, eight pages long.

Two would have been enough for the SPD, but the Greens apparently want more material that they can discuss at a party congress at the weekend.

The SPD is about the big picture: building trust, a good atmosphere, appropriate headlines.