Four hours - then the coalition committee is over

The leaders of the Union and SPD discussed for about four hours - then the coalition committee ended: At 10:08 p.m. CSU leader Markus Söder left the Chancellery, a minute later SPD chairman Lars Klingbeil.

The results will not be announced until Thursday morning - probably in writing, the dpa news agency learned from coalition circles. The main topics of the meeting were the further implementation of the reform plans. The mood was described as good and very constructive, but the course of the meeting was also not spectacular, reported dpa. According to Reuters, the results of the state elections were also discussed.

Commitment to reform

Before the meeting, Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) called for a new commitment to the agreed reform course, despite the partly 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 reform package approved in July "remain the business basis for the work of the coalition," said the CDU leader at an event hosted by Handelsblatt and WirtschaftsWoche in Berlin.

Merz also emphasized that he does not expect the reform package 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 was approved by the coalition committee in July and contains regulations for pensions, care, the labor market and taxes.