The red-red state government in Schwerin can start.

After the two party congresses in Wismar and Güstrow, at which the delegates from the SPD and the Left had almost unanimously approved the coalition agreement, the coalition agreement was signed in Schwerin.

Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig and the parliamentary group leader Thomas Krüger for the SPD as well as the parliamentary group chairman Simone Oldenburg and co-party leader Wenke Brüdgam for the Left put their signatures on the 77-page work on Saturday afternoon.

"We are looking forward to being able to get started with the departure in 2030," said Schwesig.

Oldenburg once again highlighted the great similarities between the two parties.

This is "a common departure for our Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania".

At the beginning of next week Schwesig is to be re-elected as Prime Minister in the state parliament and then her cabinet will be sworn in.

In her speech, Schwesig had asked for approval for the contract in Wismar.

She emphasized the triad of a strong economy with good wages, social justice and ecological responsibility, which should be the focus of the new five-year legislative period.

An additional holiday

It is planned to lower the voting age to 16 years and to introduce an additional public holiday on March 8, International Women's Day.

The SPD and the left are planning improvements in day-care centers, after-school care centers and schools.

They want to make agriculture more environmentally friendly - the organically farmed agricultural area should grow by a third by 2026.

"The left is capable of governing, and the left is also willing to govern," said the parliamentary group leader of the left in the Bundestag, Dietmar Bartsch, in Güstrow.

"It is an opportunity for us." Above all, it is an opportunity for the country.

Oldenburg demanded that the coalition agreement must be filled with life.

"We mustn't screw up this historic opportunity."

In the red-red government, Oldenburg is to become Minister of Education and Vice-Prime Minister.

Your party friend Jacqueline Bernhardt is to take over the Ministry of Justice.

The delegates in Güstrow voted unanimously for the appointment of both ministers.

More women in the cabinet

For the first time in the history of the state, women will be in the majority at the Schwerin cabinet table.

In addition to Prime Minister Schwesig, the SPD and the Left have agreed on four ministers.

The SPD had clearly won the state election on September 26th with 39.6 percent.

The left came up with 9.9 percent.

The red-red alliance has 43 seats in the 79-member state parliament.

The SPD has 34 MPs, the left a new one.

There was already a red-red state government in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania from 1998 to 2006. Then the then Prime Minister Harald Ringstorff (SPD) switched to the CDU as a small government partner because he found the red-red majority of one vote in the state parliament too shaky .