On January 11, in berlin, the German capital, German Chancellor and CDU President Angela Merkel arrived at SPD headquarters to address the media before attending the talks. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Shan Yuqi
The German cabinet made a breakthrough in tentative negotiations on the 12th. Prime Minister Angela Merkel's CDU/CSU (SOP) and Martin Schultz's Social Democratic Party (SPD) have reached preliminary agreement on key issues such as refugee ceilings.
According to the draft agreement, the negotiators agreed that the number of refugees accepted by Germany each year will be limited to 180,000 to 220,000; the number of refugee families admitted to the country will be limited to 1,000 per month. As a manifestation of the SPD's demands, the parties also agreed to work with France to promote eurozone reforms to strengthen their resilience to global crises. At the same time, the SPD no longer seeks to increase taxes on the wealthy in order to accommodate the Coalition's opposition to the issue that the treasury should be enriched at this stage and that tax increases should be avoided.
The "tentative" cabinet negotiations between the Coalition Party and the SpD Party were launched on the 7th, discussing and coordinating positions involving refugee policy, energy, social security, taxation, education and medical care, etc., so progress was slow. The latest round of negotiations began at the SPD's Berlin headquarters on the 11th and lasted more than 24 hours, with the final result solidified into a 28-page preliminary draft agreement.
After the negotiations on the 12th, Serkan Agzi, spokesman for the Social Democratic Party, told the media reporters outside the headquarters that the leaders of the various parties had reached a "breakthrough agreement", but the negotiation working group still needed to revise the draft agreement and then seek the approval of the parties and the party to be effective.
SPD leader Schultz has said that any agreement to negotiate a cabinet needs to be voted on by a party congress on January 21. Previously, some SPD members represented by the "Youth League" faction did not agree to form the so-called coalition "grand alliance" with the Coalition Party again, because under the shadow of Merkel's Coalition Party, the SPD's ruling philosophy could not be realized.
Achieving "groundbreaking unanimity" is nearly four months after the end of the German parliamentary elections on September 24 last year. Merkel's last "Grand Alliance" government decided in 2015 to open its doors to refugees from Middle East and North African countries, absorbing more than 1 million refugees in more than two years, which made many Germans dissatisfied. In the elections, the Alliance and the SPD retained their position as the first and second largest parties in parliament, but their support fell considerably, and the anti-immigrant right-wing populist AfD became the third largest party.
The election results pushed Merkel into a cabinet formation dilemma and delayed the start of her fourth term as chancellor. The Alliance Party failed in its first negotiations with the Liberal Democratic Party and the Greens, and instead sought to form a "grand alliance" with the SPD again, with a view to occupying a majority of seats in parliament and forming a relatively stable government. If another cabinet fails, Merkel may choose to form a minority government, but will be hampered in parliament or reconvene parliamentary elections. Merkel has said she would rather choose the latter.
Focus magazine published a poll showing that only 30 percent of Germans would be happy to see a new "Grand Alliance" government, and 34 percent would rather re-elect. A poll by the German Public Broadcasting Union showed that 45% of respondents supported another "grand coalition" and 52% opposed it. (Shen Min) (Xinhua News Agency special article)
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