- The EPP’s weakness
- Traffic light coalition: conflict over China course?
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- EPP Chairman Weber skeptical about Nord Stream 2 because of Ukraine
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Broad approval from the SPD and FDP: During the weekend, delegates from both parties greenlit the coalition agreement of the traffic light alliance at special party conventions. For the Liberals, 92.2 percent of the delegates voted in favor; for the SPD even 98.8 percent.
The result of the Greens’ member survey is still to be presented by the party today. If it’s a yes, Olaf Scholz (SPD) can be elected as the new chancellor by the German Bundestag on Wednesday.
The Greens are also expected to agree, so there will likely be no major surprises here. However, the allocation of a post about which Scholz has persistently remained silent so far is eagerly awaited: Who will be the new Minister of Health? The Chancellor-designate plans to announce this today.
The much-vaunted unity of the future CDU/CSU government could soon begin to show cracks in its relations with China. According to media reports, Olaf Scholz signaled to China’s President Xi Jinping well before taking office that he would maintain the China course of his predecessor Angela Merkel (CDU). In the coalition agreement, the Greens and FDP had already pushed through a change of course vis-à-vis the People’s Republic. Read more about this in the news.
Meanwhile, the CDU and CSU are busy looking for their role in the opposition. Angela Merkel’s departure leaves not only an unsettled Union behind that must get used to losing its power. The EPP is also in crisis.
It no longer has a majority in the Council, EPP Group leader Manfred Weber (CSU) is weakened, and a victory for EPP candidate Roberta Metsola in the upcoming EU Parliament Presidency election is by no means certain – to name just a few problems. Brussels correspondent Eric Bonse analyses what is currently going wrong in the party family.
Sarah Schaefer
Feature
The EPP’s weakness
Next Wednesday will be a rainy day for the European People’s Party. If the SPD politician Olaf Scholz is elected Germany’s next chancellor as expected, it won’t just be Angela Merkel (CDU) who loses power after sixteen years. The EPP will also lose ground – with far-reaching consequences for all of Europe.
For years the Christian-conservative party family had determined the fate of the EU and occupied the most important offices. In the European Council, the EU Commission, and the Parliament, the EPP set the tone, and the CDU and CSU benefited particularly from this. But with Merkel’s departure, everything will change.
In the future, Scholz will speak for Germany in the European Council. At the next EU summit on December 16th, the post-Merkel era begins – and with it a new, difficult period for the EPP. Until now, it has set the course together with Merkel at its traditional pre-summit meeting. Now the EPP summit will become a tiny round.
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