One day before its first anniversary, the traffic light alliance has given itself a new name.

With the election of the Social Democrat Olaf Scholz as Federal Chancellor on December 8, 2021, the SPD, Greens and FDP parliamentary groups launched a "working coalition", said Britta Haßelmann from the Greens on Wednesday.

She gave a press conference together with her co-chairwoman Katharina Dröge and the parliamentary group leaders of the coalition partners, Rolf Mützenich (SPD) and Christian Dürr (FDP).

So far, the traffic light has liked to present itself as a progressive coalition, even with the title of the coalition agreement: “Dare to make more progress.”

Eckhart Lohse

Head of the parliamentary editorial office in Berlin.

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The four faction leaders made every effort to point out their substantive successes in the fight against climate change, in the reaction to the Russian war against Ukraine and in the socio-political field.

Nevertheless, the new naming ran as a theme through the half-hour performance in the Paul-Löbe-Haus north of the Reichstag.

This has to do with the fact that the traffic light is an unprecedented alliance at the federal level, which came about primarily as a result of the weak performance of the Union and its internal disorganization last year.

With the label "progress" the impression of randomness should be covered.

Mützenich wants traffic light alliance also in the future

Mützenich defended himself offensively against this right at the beginning of the joint performance.

"Some of the comments I've read these days that it was more of a coincidence that this majority came about are deceptive." Rather, it is a task that extends beyond the legislative period.

This corresponds to Scholz's early announcement and determination that he also wanted to govern with this alliance in the next legislative period.

As a self-confident member of the German Bundestag, he wanted to "note cautiously" that the depiction of the traffic light as a random coalition was "indirectly" also a criticism of the sovereign, Mützenich continued.

“Because the sovereign brought this government into office, he gave it a majority,” he said.

"And I do think that all those responsible who deserve democracy on the one hand, but are also concerned on the other hand, should be very careful about how far they go in assessing these times."

On a morning when the nationwide arrests in the Reichsbürger scene to avert an attack on democracy made the headlines and the prominent members of parliament were also concerned about this, such a reference by the chairman of the largest parliamentary group was striking.

In the course of the first traffic light year in particular, the FDP repeatedly made it clear that it had joined the alliance with the SPD and the Greens primarily because the Union was not available to form a majority.

Just recently, FDP General Secretary Bijan Djir-Sarai pointed out in the FAZ that his party was by no means prepared for a traffic light in the summer of last year.

Above all, she saw a deep ditch with the Greens.

Bosses praise the achievements of their own factions

Now, on Wednesday, it was the FDP parliamentary group leader, Dürr, of all people, who tried to find a compromise between a progressive coalition equipped with plans for the future and a sober working coalition.

"The working coalition is a progress coalition," he said.

It went without saying that the four chairmen praised the achievements of their own groups.

In addition to pointing out that the reactions to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine had a strong influence on political action in the first traffic light year, the Greens, for example, particularly emphasized the contributions to climate policy, the FDP recalled the relief of the “working middle” by 50 billion euros or the simplifications for planning procedures.

As the head of the largest faction in the traffic light coalition, Mützenich pointed out a hundred legislative projects that had been launched.

Above all, however, he emphasized the weight of Parliament.

The three factions are able to “improve” the government’s proposals.

While the parliamentary group leaders demonstrated self-confidence, Chancellor Scholz, who they had elected a year ago, distributed “Ampelmann” brand chocolate to the ministers a few hundred meters further west in the cabinet room of the Chancellery.

Flavour: bittersweet.