Struggle for reforms: “It was good”: Coalition can do without a night meeting

The leaders of the Union and SPD ended their discussions in the coalition committee about the further course of reform in the evening after around four hours. At 10:08 p.m., CSU leader Markus Söder left the Chancellery, a minute later SPD leader Lars Klingbeil. At around 11 p.m., Chancellor and CDU leader Friedrich Merz called it a day. The results will not be announced until Thursday morning - probably in writing, the German Press Agency learned from coalition circles. A press conference is not planned this time.

The main topics of the meeting were the further implementation of the reform projects already approved in July and the 2027 budget. Union parliamentary group leader Thorsten Frei said as he left the Chancellery: “It was good.” The mood was also described by others as “good” and “very constructive”, and the course of the meeting as “not spectacular”.

First meeting in more than three months

The coalition committee is the most important body of the black-red alliance alongside the cabinet. Before the first meeting of the leadership group in more than three months, the Chancellor called for a new commitment to the agreed reform course, despite the sometimes drastic losses suffered by the CDU/CSU and the SPD in the three state elections in September. He assumes that the coalition agreement and the existing reform package “remain the business basis for the work of the coalition,” said the CDU leader at an event organized by “Handelsblatt” and “WirtschaftsWoche” in Berlin.

The SPD had called for changes to the package after the state elections. For example, the deduction-free pension after 45 years of contributions goes against the grain. However, it is considered unlikely that far-reaching substantive agreements were made. Even before the meeting it was said that at best a timetable for further action would be agreed upon.

Merz had made it clear that he did not expect the plans to be fully implemented by Christmas. But he hopes “that we will have this all sorted out by spring of next year”. At a closed meeting in Münster at the end of August, the executive boards of the coalition factions agreed to get the entire package through the Bundestag by the end of the year. It contains regulations for the areas of pensions, care, the labor market and taxes.

Aftermath of the elections weighs on the coalition

It had already been announced before the meeting that the aftermath of the elections in Saxony-Anhalt and Berlin would also be discussed. On Tuesday, an AfD politician was elected state parliament president for the first time in Saxony-Anhalt - in a secret ballot. There is a suspicion that he also received votes from the CDU. The SPD is in turmoil because of this.

In the Union, however, there is anger that the SPD may form a coalition with the Left in Berlin. The Berlin Left is viewed by the Union as partly anti-Semitic and left-wing extremist. According to CSU regional group leader Alexander Hoffmann, this contradicts the coalition agreement, which excludes any cooperation with “anti-constitutional” and “anti-democratic” parties.