Today, Monday, the leaders of the Greens, SPD, Left and Volt are announcing the details of their fully negotiated cooperation agreement.

Some of the 69 delegates who came to the district party conference of the SPD in the Erbenheim community center on Saturday had probably hoped for a few details from the eagerly awaited agreement in advance.

But the SPD leadership and the 28 members who had negotiated the contract in nine specialist working groups remained staunchly silent.

Oliver Bock

Correspondent for the Rhein-Main-Zeitung for the Rheingau-Taunus district and for Wiesbaden.

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Party leader Patricia Eck was at least carried away to the conclusion that the paper showed "a clear social democratic handwriting": "We did it," said Eck after "countless hours" of negotiations.

The SPD party council is to discuss the contract on Monday evening, and in two weeks a special party conference is to give its approval.

Criticism of the behavior of the CDU

"It's working and it's going to be good," said SPD faction leader Hendrik Schmehl optimistically, even if the treasurer's budget freeze didn't make work any easier.

Schmehl also addressed the CDU directly and spoke of the "absurd accusation" that the SPD had sought a left-wing alliance from the start.

That was wrong, said Schmehl, referring to the coalition offer to the FDP after the soundings in the wake of the local elections and the subsequent offer to the CDU.

The CDU accused Schmehl of having signaled a willingness to talk several times.

But the CDU linked this to attacks on the SPD or insults to their chamberlain.

The current constellation in Wiesbaden "also has a lot to do with the behavior of the CDU: That would never have happened to Horst Klee," Schmehl combined his attack with a jab at party leader Ingmar Jung.

Schmehl also criticized the fact that the CDU was "subliminally" threatening to say no to the new Ostfeld district.

In doing so, the CDU in the opposition is breaking its election promise, said Schmehl.

Responsibility in the opposition looks different.

The SPD, on the other hand, stands firmly by the project and will agree to it in the city council, although there is certainly criticism within the party.

"Don't just be part of the problem"

Mayor Gert-Uwe Mende (SPD) also held back in his review of the local political issues on the subject of cooperation.

With a view to the housing situation in the Rhine-Main region and Ostfeld, Mende said that "Wiesbaden, as a regional center, must claim not only to be part of the problem, but above all part of the solution".

Urban policy is called upon not to regard climate protection and affordable housing as "mutually exclusive alternatives", but to bring these policy areas together.

In the town hall he will remain true to his style of binding togetherness and not give in to the temptation of polarization.

A prominent guest at the party conference was the chairman of the SPD parliamentary group in the state parliament, Günter Rudolph, who got the grass roots ready for the 2023 state election campaign.

Almost a quarter of a century of CDU government has left “deep marks” and changed structures.

The SPD will not be able to change everything at once.

But changes are urgently needed because "mildew is over this country".

The change in the office of Prime Minister does not help: "Old wine in new bottles rarely tastes good." Rudolph criticized above all failures in the digitization of the country and in education policy.

The "lighthouses" initiated by former Prime Minister Roland Koch have "burned down".

With a view to Wiesbaden, Rudolph said that the turnaround in traffic "won't work without a rail-bound system".