The Brief - Germany’s three-party problem

Germany’s three-party problem

By Jonathan Packroff | @JonPackroff

The budget crisis that shook Germany’s three-way ruling coalition only weeks before its second anniversary has painfully exposed the contradictions between the disparate government partners.

When the three-party coalition of Social Democrats (S&D), Greens, and liberal FDP (Renew) came to power, the one term they could all agree on was ‘progress’.

Progress, as opposed to the 16 years under Angela Merkel (CDU/EPP), which many Germans had filed away under ‘stability’, was the glue that brought the three unequal partners together.

However, as time passed and several crises started to shake the coalition’s proclaimed objectives, this glue became increasingly brittle while infighting grew.

With a ruling by the constitutional court three weeks ago that struck €60 billion off the governing coalition’s long-term budget, the differences are now clearer than ever as the government ponders the hard truth that it won’t be able to achieve all its objectives – or at least, not at the same time.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats had one major objective: To shake off the trauma that has haunted the party since then-chancellor Gerhard Schröder cut welfare spending to fight unemployment back in 2005.

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The European Parliament’s Economic Affairs Committee adopted the annual competition policy report with a broad majority on Monday, suggesting expanding the reach of the EU’s Big Tech law to the cloud and Artificial Intelligence sectors.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva committed to concluding the EU-Mercosur trade agreement in Berlin on Monday, despite the blowback the deal received from France and Argentina.

The EU executive gave the green light to public spending up to €1.2 billion by seven member states for their common research interest project on interoperable cloud and edge computing for multi-providers.

The European Parliament and the Council of EU member states reached a provisional deal on Monday on new ‘ecodesign’ rules to make products easier to repair and recycle while fighting planned obsolescence and banning the destruction of unsold textiles.

Re-issuing a cancer patient’s unused medication to a fellow patient can save up to €50 million annually in the Netherlands, a study conducted at four Dutch hospitals and published in JAMA Oncology has found. However, the EU-wide Falsified Medicines Directive is preventing a wider roll-out of this environment- and cost-friendly programme.

The European Union has set a goal to increase the production and utilisation of renewable hydrogen in the fertiliser industry but like other sectors, there is no quick fix for achieving climate neutrality and the key to advancing decarbonisation is to use a combination of low-carbon technologies.

Czech Parliament has approved a law amendment setting out new obligations for suppliers and distributors of medicines, pharmacies and state authorities in what the Health Ministry hopes will tackle medicine shortages, but the pharmaceutical sector is unconvinced.

A socially equitable green transition ought to rely heavily on technological innovation, American tech mogul and philanthropist Bill Gates told a high-level ‘Growth and Climate’ conference in Paris on Tuesday.

European recyclers have raised concerns over plans to hand out free CO2 allowances to steelmakers, saying the methodology considered by Brussels puts recycled steel scrap at a disadvantage compared to primary steel made from iron ore, which is more polluting.

One of the larger advertisers in Bulgaria announced that it would stop “cooperation” with a news website singled out as “problematic” ahead of the publication on Tuesday of a report according to which major global brands are sending $2.6 billion to misinformation websites each year.

A network comprised of six hospitals located across Belgium is aiming to carry out age-specific care dedicated to adolescents and young adults (AYAs) diagnosed with cancer, that is young adults between the ages of 16 and 35 years.

Six Ukrainian children will be returned to Ukraine from Russia under a deal brokered by Qatar, a Qatari official said on Tuesday (5 December), with a source involved in organising the returns saying they had been staying with relatives in Russia or Russian-occupied territory.

Ukraine President Volodomyr Zelenskyy and top aides to US President Joe Biden will make their case to US senators on Tuesday about why a fresh infusion of military assistance is needed to help Ukraine repel Russian invaders.

Don’t miss this week’s Transport Brief: Carmakers call for relaxation of regulation ‘tsunami’.

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[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic/Nathalie Weatherald]