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
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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
'Traffic light' coalition — Red, Yellow, Green
Since 2021 Germany has been governed by a center-left coalition of Social Democrats (SPD), ecologist Greens, and free-market-oriented neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP), whose color is yellow. They started out as a self-declared "Fortschrittskoalition" (progress coalition) but got mired in infighting along the way.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/J.Büttner
Black-red coalition
The Conservative's black combined with transformative red 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 for eight years until 2021, led by then-Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Image: picture-alliance/R. Goldmann
'Pizza Connection' — precursor to Black and Green
When Bonn was still Germany's capital, conservative and Greens lawmakers started meeting informally in an Italian restaurant, in what became known as the 'Pizza Connection.' At the regional level, Baden-Württemburg's Greens-CDU coalition has governed since 2016 and Germany's most populous state of North-Rhine Westphalia has had a Black-Green government since 2022.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
'Jamaica' option — black, yellow and green
A three-way deal between the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), the Greens and the neoliberal Free Democrats FDP), whose color is yellow did not come about at national level in 2017 after the FDP called off talks. It has been tested at a state level, where Schleswig-Holstein had a "Jamaica" government until they went Black-Green in 2022.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/dpaweb
Black, Red, Green — like Kenya's flag
The eastern German state of Saxony has been governed by a coalition of CDU, SPD and Greens, headed by the state's popular Premier Michael Kretschmer. He is hoping to be able to stay in power despite the rise of the right-wing extremist Alternative for Germany (AfD) which is campaigning on an anti-immigrant and anti-NATO agenda.
Image: Fotolia/aaastocks
The Germany coalition — Black, Red and Yellow
The eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt has been governed by a coalition led by the CDU's popular Premier Rainer Haseloff. He has teamed up with the SPD and the FDP. The alliance of unlikely bedfellows was the only viable option to ward off the threat by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
Image: Hoffmann/Caro/picture alliance
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
Violet and Black?
In graphics showing opinion polls, the new Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) is shown in violet. That may be 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 is doing so well in the eastern German states that it may well be asked to join coalition governments. Possibly led by the CDU (Black).
