A tripartite alliance in Schleswig-Holstein is off the table. It was the desired constellation of country manager Günther. The winner of the election, the CDU, must now choose between the FDP and the Greens.
Schleswig-Holstein is expected to get a new governing coalition after all. In an exploratory talk, the leaders of the CDU, Greens and FDP in Kiel were unable to agree on negotiations on continuing the incumbent Jamaica alliance. He very much regrets this, said CDU Prime Minister Daniel Günther after several hours of consultations in a Kiel hotel. He wanted a different result. The CDU state executive will now discuss the situation on Monday and make an offer for exploratory talks to one of the two previous coalition partners.
With 43.4 percent, the CDU missed the absolute majority in the state parliament of Kiel by just one seat in the state elections on May 8th. She would therefore only have a secure majority in parliament with the Greens or the FDP – nevertheless Günther had campaigned for a continuation of the tripartite alliance that has governed the north together since 2017. According to the Greens, there is “no common basis” for a coalition in which one of the partners is not needed.
As CDU state chairman, Günther had invited the Greens and FDP to the meeting. On Tuesday, a four-man team from the CDU led by Günther spoke separately with the leaders of both parties – for five hours with the Greens and two hours with the FDP. The leaders of the Greens and FDP had already stated their clear preferences for a two-party coalition with the CDU, but had also declared themselves ready for talks beyond that.
Günther justified his course for a tripartite alliance with the high reputation of the coalition among the population. In the state elections, the CDU and the Greens had improved significantly with 18.3 percent, while the FDP only managed 6.4 percent after heavy losses.
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