The Greens have voted unanimously to approve exploratory negotiations to form Germany's next government with Chancellor Merkel's CDU/CSU and the laissez-faire Free Democrats. Talks could start by the end of October.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/B. Peders
Advertisement
The Greens unanimously approved exploratory talks with the Christian Democrats (CDU) and the laissez-faire Free Democrats (FDP). Led by Katrin Göring-Eckardt and Cem Özdemir, the Greens top candidates for 2017, a 14-member delegation will begin preliminary negotiations with the two right-wing parties this fall.
"We will make it clear in the talks that we want to achieve environmental progress and more social justice in a land in which the social structure is becoming brittle," the politically adaptable Greens announced.
Özdemir, the Greens' co-leader, told delegates in Berlin that the party would enter into the negotiations with its faithful in mind, but, he said, talks would likely prove complicated. Jamaica — so named because of the parties' colors: black for CDU, yellow for the FDP and, well, green for the Greens — is a "constellation that none of the players wished for," he said.
Göring-Eckardt, who ran alongside Özdemir as co-candidate this year, said that after Sunday's elections the Greens could not simply say that Jamaica "is unfortunately too tough for us." Nevertheless, she said, the talks could fall apart. "I have no fear of entering into harsh negotiations," Göring-Eckardt added.
And Simone Peter (pictured), the party's co-leader, said the Greens would need to go to the table with the FDP and CDU self-assuredly and not allow themselves "to be fobbed off with platitudes and memorandums of understanding." She called on her party to stick up for asylum rights and against imposing harsh austerity on EU members with fewer resources, as the CDU and FDP have done in the past. "For that reason, it is by no means finalized for me that FDP chief Christian Lindner will be the finance minister," she said, referring to the neoliberal party boss and his desired post in Germany's next government.
Should the exploratory talks prove promising, the Greens would vote again on whether to enter into formal negotiations. The CDU and the allied Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) will vote on October 8 on whether to consider talks with the Greens and the FDP.
Germany's colorful coalition shorthand
Foreign flags and even traffic lights are used to describe the various coalitions that emerge in German elections. Coalitions are common under Germany's proportional representation system.
Image: Getty Images
Black-red coalition
The Conservatives black combined with the traditional red of the political left is the color code when the Christian Democrats govern in a "grand coalition" with the Social Democrats. This combination of Germany's two "big tent" parties, was in power first from 1966-69 and most recently for eight years until 2021, led by then-Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Image: Odermann/IMAGO
Black and Green
The conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has teamed up with the ecologist Greens in several German states cooperating smoothly at the regional level. On the national level the two parties see eye to eye especially on strong support for Ukraine. They disagree on nuclear and renewable energy, and many conservatives despise the Greens for their multicultural and "woke" positions.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Black, Red, Green — like Kenya's flag
The center-right CDU/CSU could also team up with the Greens and the center-left SPD. This three-way coalition would be an option for a comfortable majority. It has been tested on a regional level: The eastern German state of Saxony was governed by such a coalition until 2024.
Image: Fotolia/aaastocks
The Germany coalition — Black, Red and Yellow
The neoliberal FDP has been a junior coalition partner to both the center-right CDU/CSU and the center-left SPD. A three-way coalition was forged on the state level, for example in the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt. While this combination was touted as a possibility ahead of the 2025 vote, the FDP failed to get into parliament, ruling it out from any coalition building.
Image: Hoffmann/Caro/picture alliance
'Traffic light' coalition — Red, Yellow, Green
From 2021-2025 Germany was governed by a center-left coalition of Social Democrats (SPD), ecologist Greens, and free-market-oriented neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP), whose color is yellow. The government known as "Ampel" (traffic light) in Germany, started out as a self-declared "Fortschrittskoalition" (progress coalition) but got mired in infighting and became the least popular government ever.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/J.Büttner
'Jamaica' option — black, yellow and green
A three-way combination of Christian Democrats (CDU), the Greens and the neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP), has been tested at a regional level. But the FDP and Greens described their positions as irreconcilable following the collapse of the center-left government in November 2024. With the FDP's defeat in the 2025 election it will not be an option on the national level for the foreseeable future
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/dpaweb
Black and Orange
Since 2018 Bavaria's Christian Social Union (CSU) has been governing with the Free Voters (FV), whose color is Orange. The FV is a grass-roots populist and far-right-leaning party and is led by its controversial chairman Hubert Aiwanger. Strong in rural areas of southern and eastern Germany, the Freie Wähler is seeking a larger role at the national level and currently has three MEPs.
Image: Privat
Blackberry Coalition
CDU (black), SPD (red) and BSW (violet). The new Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance's (BSW) color violet, seems fitting as it combines socialist, far-left (red) with populist right wing (blue) ideas in its platform. Although the party was only founded in 2024, it did so well in the eastern German states that it entered a coalition government with the SPD and CDU in the state of Thuringia.
