Germany's outgoing Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble has said German leaders will soon find a way to form a three-party governing coalition - dubbed "Jamaica" due to colors associated with the three parties involved.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/J. Thys
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Wolfgang Schäuble, a senior member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), on Monday expressed confidence that Germany would soon get a stable government comprising the CDU, the Greens and the Free Democrats (FDP).
"Let things play out. There will be a way," Schäuble told a special edition of German newspaper Bild am Sonntag. He added that a "Jamaica coalition" was just a matter of time, as "we need a stable government for our country."
The so-called Jamaica coalition, named because the three parties' traditional colors of black, yellow and green correspond to the Caribbean country's flag, is being seen as Chancellor Angela Merkel's best shot at forming a government after the Social Democrats ended their partnership with her CDU, following a dismal show in general elections last month.
But coalition talks are expected to be lengthy and tricky with the three parties having vast ideological and policy differences, including on immigration.
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).
Image: Oliver Berg/dpa/picture alliance
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Dismissing refugee 'ceilling'
In the same interview, Schäuble also dismissed the importance of settling on a cap on the number of refugees coming to Germany every year. This has been a sticking point between some members of Merkel's CDU and their Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU).
The CSU calls for a ceiling on refugees, a demand that Merkel has repeatedly turned down. The Greens and the FDP similarly oppose any cap on migrants.
The 75-year-old conservative said the issue of a refugee cap does not need to be part of a possible coalition contract.
Schäuble also defended Merkel's open-door policy at the peak of the refugee crisis in 2015.
"Our children will be proud of the readiness to help shown by Germans during the refugee crisis," he said.
Lawmakers in Germany's other parties have accused the AfD of whipping up anti-foreigner sentiment and violating the country's political norms.
"Our free, democratic system based on the rule of law is so strong that nobody can wreck it, neither from within nor from without. Anybody who tries will fail," said Schäuble, who is Germany's longest-serving parliamentarian.
