CDU and SPD approve Hesse coalition agreement
The black-red coalition agreement in Hesse has been sealed: The junior partner of the intended coalition between the CDU and SPD also approves the government program - but with a lot of stomach ache.
The black-red coalition agreement in Hesse has been signed and sealed. Following the CDU, the SPD also approved the government program for the years 2024 to 2029 after a long and controversial debate. At an extraordinary party conference in Groß-Umstadt near Darmstadt, there were 253 votes in favor, 56 against and eight abstentions. The agreement was thus accepted with 81.9 percent.
Previously, at a parallel small party conference of the CDU in Frankfurt, 133 delegates had given the green light for the paper with only one vote against. According to current plans, the coalition agreement is to be signed on Monday.
SPD state leader Nancy Faeser described black-red as a "community of responsibility". The envisaged government alliance is not a "love match", said the Federal Minister of the Interior in Groß-Umstadt. For example, the coalition agreement formulated goals in refugee policy "that are extremely painful". But for the SPD, not joining the state government would mean being able to do less for migrants. At the same time, there is also a lot of social democratic handwriting in the 184-page paper, for example in social, housing and labor market policy.
At the SPD party conference, however, there was a lot of criticism of the treaty, for example because of the narrow guard rails for migration or the planned ban on special gender symbols in schools and universities. The regional head of the Young Socialists, Lukas Schneider, reiterated his rejection of the coalition agreement. Numerous other speakers also complained that there was too little social democratic DNA in the government program.
After a quarter of a century on the opposition bench, the Hessian SPD is entering a black-red coalition as the clear junior partner. In the state elections on October 8, the SPD received 15.1 percent of the vote, less than half that of the CDU (34.6 percent). The new state parliament in Wiesbaden will be constituted on January 18, when the state government of CDU and SPD can begin.
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The SPD, led by Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser, has also endorsed the government program of the Grand Coalition between the CDU and SPD in Hesse, despite some internal criticism and disagreements. The approval of the black-red coalition agreement in Hesse marks the entry of the SPD into government as the junior partner after a quarter of a century on the opposition bench.
Source: www.ntv.de
