The business wing of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats has threatened to put a hold on important parts of any coalition deal. Some are disgruntled at the ceding of the finance ministry to the center-left.
Image: picture-alliance/Zumapress/Shan Yuqi
Advertisement
Merkel's cabinet takes shape - who's in and out at Germany's ministries
Reaching agreement on who should run particular ministries is one of the headaches that make coalition talks so long and torturous. Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats have had to make considerable concessions.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/R. Hirschberger
Shifting responsibilities
There are five "classic ministries" in Germany's government – Finance, Foreign, Interior, Justice and Defense. Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) are ceding direct control of two of them. One, finance, is to change from right to left of the political divide, moving from CDU to Social Democrat (SPD) hands. Other switches are likely in less prominent portfolios.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/R. Hirschberger
Major prize changes hands
The transfer of the Finance Ministry from CDU hands to the SPD is the biggest surprise of the deal. The minister plays a major role at the European level as evidenced by the CDU’s Wolfgang Schäuble during the eurozone sovereign debt crisis. Hamburg Mayor Olaf Scholz, a centrist within the SPD, will likely get the title of deputy chancellor in addition to finance minister.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/K. Nietfeld
Bavaria to take home ministry
The Interior Ministry, which deals with law and order within Germany, looks set to stay in the hands of Merkel’s conservatives, but not her own CDU. Touted for the position is the leader of Bavarian sister party the CSU, Horst Seehofer (left). The Bavarian party has taken a tougher line than Merkel on immigration. The conservatives suffered losses to the far-right AfD in September's election.
Image: Reuters/M. Rehle
Who will be Germany's top diplomat?
Under the deal, the SPD will keep control of the Foreign Ministry. Since 1966, the ministry has been run by a member of smaller coalition partners. Sigmar Gabriel has been in the role in a caretaker capacity since Frank-Walter Steinmeier was elected president. Martin Schulz (above), a former leader of the European Parliament, was expected to take over but pulled out in a bid to quell party unrest.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/O. Andersen
Growing profile of defense
The CDU’s Ursula von der Leyen, a key ally of Merkel who is thought to have her own ambitions to become chancellor, is likely to remain in her role at the helm of the Defense Ministry. The ministry has had a growing importance in recent decades as Germany became more involved in foreign military operations. In particular, the Bundeswehr maintains a significant deployment of troops in Afghanistan.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Images/J. Macdougall
Justice unlikely to change hands
Typically a portfolio that goes to the junior coalition partner, responsibility for the Justice Ministry may well stay with the current incumbent — the SPD’s Heiko Maas. While individual states in Germany are generally responsible for the administration of justice, the federal ministry is charged with making and changing constitution-related laws. It also analyzes laws made by other ministries.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Economic compensation
Helping to make up for the CDU losing two major offices, the CDU will get its hands on the Economy Ministry, also responsible for energy policy. Merkel's right hand in the chancellery Peter Altmaier (pictured) — who has also been running the Finance Ministry since the departure of Wolfgang Schäuble — is expected to take over from the SPD's Brigitte Zypries.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/M. Gambarini
New girl on the block
The favorite to take over at the top of the Ministry of Agriculture is the CDU’s Julia Klöckner, who leads the party in the western state of Rhineland Palatinate. Having twice failed in her bid to become state premier there, she'll be one of the relatively rare new faces in Berlin.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/G. Fischer
Change of track
The CSU will also retain the Transport Ministry with CSU Secretary-General Andreas Scheuer, from Lower Bavaria, taking charge. He’d also be responsible for digital infrastructure. The party will hold onto the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, with undersecretary in the Transport Ministry Dorothee Bär set to take the reins from current Development Minister Gerd Müller.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/R. Vennenbernd
Health in same party hands
The Health Ministry remains a CDU concern, with Annette Widmann-Mauz, an undersecretary in the ministry from Baden Württemberg, expected to take over. She’d replace fellow CDU member Hermann Gröhe, who is touted to head up the Federal Ministry for Education and Research.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/P. Pleul
10 images1 | 10
Christian von Stetten, a member of Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), said on Saturday members of parliament — and not those negotiating the coalition — would have the final say on a deal.
"The coalition agreement is not the bible,” von Stetten, who chairs the Small and Medium-size Business Association of the CDU party in parliament, told the German daily newspaper Augsburger Allgemeine.
A significant number of Merkel's conservatives are dismayed that the SPD, which saw its support plummet to 20.5 percent at the last general election in September, claimed six ministries in the coalition deal, including the powerful Finance Ministry. The CDU garnered 32.9 percent of the vote.
The conservative-leaning mass-circulation daily newspaper Bild has accused Merkel of "gifting” the government to the center-left SPD.
Von Stetten, who has claimed the distribution of Cabinet posts is a "political mistake,” said it was the job of lawmakers to hold the party leadership to account.
"As the parliamentary group for medium-sized business, we can make sure that those things that were well-intentioned — but not carefully thought through — can be held up and corrected," von Stetten said.
Part of von Stetten's reasoning was that the coalition parties had only a slender majority, giving smaller groups more clout in chamber votes.
The Small and Medium-size Business Association of the CDU boasts a majority of conservatives in the Bundestag among its members. Von Stetten has said he would have preferred a conservative-led minority government to the Grand Coalition deal that was agreed.
Merkel, who will serve her fourth chancellorship if the coalition deal can hold, has also been criticized by the CDU's youth wing for making too many concessions.
