Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania gets red-red-green for the first time

In the future, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania will be led by a red-red-green state government for the first time. After the Left and the Greens, the Social Democrats also agreed to the negotiated coalition agreement at a special party conference in Güstrow. The vote was unanimous. The agreement is to be signed in Greifswald in the evening.

Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig (SPD) spoke to around 120 delegates in Güstrow about a strong coalition agreement that bore the signature of the SPD in many points. There is also clarity in the contract: “With this coalition of the SPD, the Greens and the Left, there will and cannot be any cooperation with the AfD,” she emphasized.

Claudia Müller from the Greens, who will be responsible for environmental, nature, climate protection, energy, mobility and equality as minister in the future, had previously campaigned for the coalition agreement at the Green Party conference in Stralsund. “I’m really proud of what we achieved as the smallest of the three partners.” In the end, the contract is a compromise.

The 52-year-old Schwesig has been head of government in MV since 2017 and wants to run for re-election in the state parliament on Monday. There, red-red-green has 39 of the total 71 seats. The AfD is the only opposition party and has 32 seats. The previous red-red government lost its governing majority in the state elections on September 20th.

The 133-page coalition program is titled “Cohesion, Confidence, Future” and was drawn up over the past few weeks by the negotiating delegations led by Schwesig and the parliamentary group leaders of the Left, Hennis Herbst, and the Greens, Claudia Müller. The legislative period lasts five years.

The distribution of departments has also been determined. The SPD has five ministers - one of whom is non-party - as well as the head of the State Chancellery. The Left occupied two ministries and the Greens received one ministerial post. Five department heads are women and five are men.

Maritime economy, food industry and medicine are some of the key issues that the new government wants to focus on. The coalition partners promise companies less bureaucracy - also through more digitalization. This should also help save 1,000 administrative positions by 2035. The red-red-green coalition also wants to work to exempt residents of wind and solar parks from network fees. They should also share in the profits of the investments.

The SPD, the Left and the Greens do not want to shake the welfare state. There is one billion euros for the modernization of hospitals by 2035. Daycare centers will remain free, the government is considering a mandatory preschool year, wants to strengthen mathematics teaching and hire more teachers in order to reduce the record number of lost hours.

A new university location is planned in Schwerin. Young people should also receive a subsidy of 20 euros for the Deutschland Ticket from 2028.