After two weeks of bitter negotiations and a final 24-hour marathon (see EUROPE 11944), the President of the SPD, Martin Schulz, was visibly exhausted but satisfied. He asserted, "This programme has a Social democrat imprint on it". According to the latter, Germany will strengthen its commitment in Europe and finally respond to the hand proffered by the French President, Emmanuel Macron.
The former President of the European Parliament confirmed that Germany is expected to contribute more to the European budget when the United Kingdom leaves the EU. Nonetheless, he did explain, "Whoever pays most must also have more control on the spending and investment choices".
European monetary fund. The government pact published by the CDU announced the determination of the two partners to transform the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) into, “a European Monetary Fund controlled by Parliament, which should be included in Union law" without affecting the laws of the respective national parliaments.
The future 'Groko' government intends to make an appeal in Brussels for a social pact containing a minimum wage and basic social insurance. "Tax equality" between the major companies is on the programme and Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon are explicitly targeted.
The future coalition confirmed its intention to strengthen its contribution to defence and foreign policy, but without, however, providing any figures to clarify the size of this contribution. According to Marcel Fratzscher, the government compromise sends out "positive signals" in Europe and the digital and education sectors. He stressed that, "the Grand Coalition has to finally seize its second opportunity after 2013 to keep its promises and reform Europe”. He did, however, regret that the agreement on pensions and health constituted a number of, “vague promises for which funding still needs to be worked out”. Dieter Kempf, the President of the German industrial association, the BDI, said that, "there is too much redistribution and not enough investment in the future".
On Wednesday, Angela Merkel, provided reassurances that, "I know they will be very critical of us, but this contract constitutes a good balance".
There is still the question of convincing the 460,000 SPD supporters to ratify this agreement. The result of their postal vote is expected to be known on the first weekend of March. A lot of activists will probably vote because they think they should do, rather than out of any passionate belief and the most recent polls give the party just 17% of votes in any new elections or, in other words, just two points ahead of the far right AfD. (Original version in French by Nathalie Steiwer)