A resumption of the red-green coalition is becoming more likely in Lower Saxony: SPD Prime Minister Weil has announced the first negotiations with the Greens for the end of October. It would be his dream coalition - but there could also be issues where there is a crunch.
Lower Saxony's SPD leader Stephan Weil announced coalition negotiations with the Greens after the state elections. The negotiations should begin on October 26, said the state's prime minister after initial consultations between the two parties in Hanover. The SPD clearly won the state elections in Lower Saxony.
After counting all constituencies and publishing the provisional results on Sunday evening on the Internet, the Social Democrats received 33.4 percent of the votes. The CDU came second with 28.1 percent. This is followed by the Greens with 14.5 percent and the AfD with 10.9 percent. Both the FDP with 4.7 percent and the left with 2.7 percent miss out on entering the state parliament in Hanover. Weil already governed in his first term together with the Greens.
The sudden change of MP Elke Twesten in the summer of 2017 from the Greens to the CDU triggered a new election at the time, with the SPD and Greens then losing their narrow majority in parliament. This new election in autumn 2017 resulted in the currently governing alliance of SPD and CDU. During the election campaign over the past few weeks, Weil repeatedly emphasized that a coalition with the Greens was his preferred coalition.
For example, in financial policy, the similarities are much greater than between the SPD and CDU. On other issues, however, coalition talks between the SPD and the Greens could become more difficult. For example in energy and environmental policy. The SPD wants to promote natural gas in the North Sea off Borkum - the Greens reject it. There could also be points of contention in domestic politics.
