Image: Friedrich Merz, on the left.
Friedrich Merz, the party leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU – Germany’s centre right party) has today agreed to a coalition with the Social Democratic Party (SPD – the centre left party). This has come after just about one and a half months of negotiations following the snap election on February 23rd of this year.
The election was called after the previous governing coalition between the SPD, the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and the Green Party had collapsed. This coalition broke apart after the firing of the Minister of Finance, Christian Lindner, party leader of the FDP, by the Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) on November 6th 2024. With this division, the governing parties had lost their majority in the parliament. Thus, Scholz took the necessary steps for a snap election to be called.
The election results saw the CDU in first place with 28.5% of the vote, followed by Germany’s controversial far-right party, the Alternative for Germany (AfD), in second place with 20.8%. The SPD came in third with 16.4%.
The new coalition between the CDU and SPD has been formed under pressure of the rapidly changing global environment, primed to face new challenges such as the trade war kicked off by the US, the Russia-Ukraine conflict and a progressively deteriorating NATO alliance. Last month, Merz had already championed a proposal for a higher debt ceiling to increase military spending, which the parliament passed on March 18th.
Written by the Pericles Foreign Policy editorial staff.
Last Edited: 09.04.2025, 12:34PM GMT
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