Germany’s New Coalition

Updated: Germany’s new three-party coalition begins to grapple with the realities of governing.

• Germany’s new three-party coalition announced a pact for how they will govern on Wednesday, clearing the way for the end of Angela Merkel’s long reign and the installation of a new government.
• The new chancellor of Germany will be Olaf Scholz, who served as finance minister in Merkel’s outgoing government. His Social Democratic Party, or SPD, narrowly won the German election in September.
• The SPD will govern with the environmentalist Greens, who came in third in the election, and the pro-Business Free Democrats, who came in fourth.
• In a 178-page document, the parties — named the “traffic light” coalition for their red, green and yellow colors — announced plans for a faster coal phase-out and to modernize Germany’s bureaucracy.
• Party members must now vote on the pact before the coalition government can be sworn in. But already, the coalition has received criticism for some of its policies.
• On Thursday, the Chinese government pushed back against the new coalition pact for its tougher-than-expected language on China — in particular with regard to Taiwan.
• Whether Scholz will be able to push through much of his agenda in the face of inevitable opposition from Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union — now in the opposition — also remains in question.
• Scholz will lead the new government with his party having won a historically weak share of the vote, which may inhibit his ability to take sweeping action.