The first exploratory talks took place in Schleswig-Holstein just under a week and a half after the state elections.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Daniel Günther's CDU first received the Greens in a hotel in Kiel in the morning, and then the CDU and FDP spoke to each other in the afternoon.

The talks were intended to explore whether it would actually be possible to continue the Jamaica coalition, which has been in power since 2017, in the northwest.

Matthias Wysuwa

Political correspondent for northern Germany and Scandinavia based in Hamburg.

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The CDU clearly won the election on May 8 with large gains and 43.4 percent of the votes.

The Greens, with their top candidate, former finance minister Monika Heinold, also gained a lot to 18.3 percent, while the FDP only gained 6.4 percent.

After the meeting, the exploratory group around Heinold announced in the afternoon that it had been made clear "that we clearly prefer a coalition between the CDU and the Greens".

The FDP state chairman Heiner Garg was open to Jamaica after the talks with the CDU, but referred to a clear majority in the state parliament for black and yellow.

Günther, on the other hand, renewed his desire to continue the previous three-party coalition after the meeting.

Jamaica is "the best alliance from our point of view," he said.

Personnel reorganization in the SPD

Whether that will happen is questionable.

Because one of the two partners is enough for the CDU to have a secure majority.

Before the election, the FDP and the Greens had made it clear that they didn't want to be part of a coalition if they weren't needed.

The FDP in particular was very clear about this.

After the election, however, representatives of the party suddenly spoke of a "charming" idea in interviews with a view to a continuation of Jamaica.

The Greens sounded much more reserved, but had always emphasized that they wanted to have a say in government and stated that they were going into the exploratory talks openly.

In the end, one of the two Günther could possibly make the choice and get out himself.

Meanwhile, there are signs of a personnel reorganization in the SPD.

The "Kieler Nachrichten" reported that the state chairwoman Serpil Midyatli renounced the chairmanship of the parliamentary group, which should be taken over by Thomas Losse-Müller.

Midyatli was supposed to be re-elected leader of the faction last week, but the election was postponed after internal discussions.

The decision should now be made this Wednesday.

Midyatli had chosen Losse-Müller as the top candidate.

With 16 percent, the SPD had received the worst result in its history in the northwest.