(Bloomberg) — Germany’s ruling coalition struck a deal for a joint legislative agenda after three grueling days of talks were required to reach an accord.
(Bloomberg) — Germany’s ruling coalition struck a deal for a joint legislative agenda after three grueling days of talks were required to reach an accord.
The measures included a surprise increase of the truck toll and a decision to invest 80% of the revenues in the modernization of the railway network, Ricarda Lang, co-leader of the Greens, told reporters on Tuesday.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party alliance of his Social Democrats, the Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats were trying to put recent public squabbling behind them and push ahead with enacting policies that are important for Germany’s technological and environmental transition.
They began their meeting at the chancellery in Berlin on Sunday evening before talks were halted without a deal early on Monday afternoon. Officials reconvened on Tuesday morning and eventually emerged around 8 p.m. to announce they had reached an accord.
That it took the coalition partners so long to overcome their differences will do little to dispel the impression that the government is already something of a spent force after only 15 months in power.
One of their most pressing tasks has yet to be tackled: agreeing on next year’s budget. The process has already been delayed and is more complex than in recent years due to Finance Minister Christian Lindner’s insistence on restoring a constitutional limit on net borrowing.
The so-called “debt brake” was suspended to allow generous government spending to offset the impact of the pandemic and the energy crisis.
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