Germany's environmentalist Greens are signaling that negotiations to form a new governing coalition are progressing slowly and differences remain over climate policy.
The Greens last month entered negotiations with the center-left Social Democrats and the business-friendly Free Democrats on a new government after all three parties made gains in Germany's Sept. 26 election. The alliance, in which Social Democrat Olaf Scholz would become chancellor, would send outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right Union bloc into opposition.
The parties said at the time that they hoped to have a coalition agreement ready at the end of November and have Scholz take office in the week beginning Dec. 6. But the Greens are raising questions over whether that timetable will hold.
FILE-Co-chairwoman of the Greens Annalena Baerbock, left, and co-party leader of the Greens Robert Habeck arrive for a press conference in Berlin, Germany, Monday, Sept. 27, 2021. Germany's environmentalist Greens are signaling that negotiations to form a new governing coalition are progressing slowly and differences remain over climate policy. (AP PhotoMatthias Schrader, file)
The party's general secretary, Michael Kellner, told news agency dpa on Thursday that “we are seeing too little progress at the moment as far as substance is concerned."
The Greens' co-leader, Annalena Baerbock, told RBB Inforadio on Friday that she can't say when a coalition agreement will be ready because it isn't yet clear when negotiations on several central issues will wrap up.
“It doesn't come down to four days more or less in the talks — we must take the time we need so that we can really renew Germany in the next four years," she said.
It's no surprise that the negotiations, which outwardly have been unexpectedly harmonious, are proving tricky. The potential alliance brings together two traditionally left-leaning parties with one, the Free Democrats, that has tended to ally with the center-right.
A preliminary agreement last month left a lot of open questions. It called for Germany to accelerate its exit from coal-fueled power, currently due by 2038, so it “ideally” happens by 2030, and speed up “drastically” the expansion of renewable energy generation.
The prospective partners said they won’t raise taxes or loosen curbs on running up debt, at the Free Democrats' insistence, making financing a central issue.
Baerbock wouldn't detail where exactly there are differences. But she said that protecting the climate must be a priority across the government, including policy areas such as construction and transport.
“A climate government can't be carried by only one partner,” Baerbock said.
—-
Follow AP’s coverage of Germany’s transition to a new government at https://apnews.com/hub/germany-election