CDU/CSU and SPD hold initial talks
After winning the election, Friedrich Merz, the chancellor candidate of the CDU/CSU alliance, talks to Chancellor Scholz about what will happen during the transitional phase. It seems that initial negotiations are imminent.
Berlin (dpa/d.de) - It seems that initial negotiations between the CDU/CSU alliance and the SPD on forming a new federal government are imminent. CDU/CSU chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz is pushing the pace: “There are urgent issues to be dealt with that cannot be put off, which is why I am keen to begin talks quickly,” said the CDU chairman. Merz said that talks with the SPD needed to achieve clarity on three major areas in particular: foreign and security policy, migration and the economy. He is confident “that we can agree on a good coalition treaty with the Social Democrats and that we can achieve this within a reasonable period of time.” He believes that a new government could be in place by Easter.
How to fund defence and security for Germany and further support for Ukraine in its defensive struggle against Russia is likely to be one of the sticking points in the upcoming negotiations. Merz once again rejected the idea of reforming the debt brake so that defence expenditure could be funded even before the new Bundestag convenes. Meanwhile, the SPD again voiced support for such reform.
Merz had a meeting with incumbent Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) at the Federal Chancellery. They are likely to have talked about how to organise the transitional phase until a new government has been formed.