Merkel’s CDU makes painful concessions to SPD in deal
SPD will get key finance ministry as per deal with conservatives
Berlin, Feb. 7: German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday that her conservatives had made painful concessions to the Social Democrats to secure a coalition deal that should give Europe’s powerhouse a new government after months of political paralysis.
In a move that heralds a shift in Germany’s euro zone policy, the SPD will take the finance ministry, a post held until recently by conservative Wolfgang Schaeuble, widely loathed in the euro zone’s indebted periphery during his eightyear tenure for his rigid focus on fiscal discipline.
SPD leader Martin Schulz, who now needs his party’s grass roots to approve the deal in a postal ballot, said this week that the SPD had ensured the coalition would stop “forced austerity” and set up an investment budget for the euro zone.
Ceding the crucial finance ministry shows the high price the conservatives had to pay to renew the ‘ grand coalition’ with the SPD that has governed Germany since 2013, and secure Ms Merkel’s fourth term in office.
“After so many years in which Wolfgang Schaeuble held the finance ministry, himself becoming an institution, it was hard for many of us that we couldn’t hold on to that ministry,” Ms Merkel said.
“The question of who gets what job wasn’t an easy one,” she said, adding that her Christian Democrats ( CDU) would take the helm at the economy ministry for the first time in decades.
For the SPD, Mr Schulz said the deal marked a “fundamental change of direction in Europe”, adding: “Germany will take an active and leading role in the European Union again.”
◗ Ceding the crucial finance ministry shows the high price the conservatives had to pay to renew the ‘ grand coalition’ with the SPD ◗ SPD leader Martin Schulz said this week that the SPD had ensured the coalition would stop ‘ forced austerity’ and set up an investment budget for the euro zone