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What we know so far about the proposed new coalition deal

The German Press Agency (DPA) has seen inside the 28-page paper that is the result of five days of talks between the Christian Union and the Social Democrats on forming a new government. Here are the key points.

Published: 12 January 2018 10:23 CET
What we know so far about the proposed new coalition deal
Photo: DPA

Refugees

The parties have agreed that there should be an upper limit on refugee arrivals that lies between 180,000 and 220,000 per year.

They have also reached agreement on family reunions for refugees with “subsidiary protection”. These people will continue to have no right to bring their families to Germany until a new law is created – this new law will limit the family members arriving in Germany to 1,000 per month.

READ ALSO: Christian Union and Social Democrats reach breakthrough in coalition talks

East Germany

The parties have agreed to lower the “solidarity tax” – a tax on all German workers which goes exclusively to east Germany – should be lowered in stages by €10 billion by the year 2021.

Social welfare

The parties have agreed in principal to several improvements to the social welfare system. The negotiating paper states that the coalition would “stabilize the level of pensions”. The paper states that the pension level should be legally set at 48 percent of income until the year 2025.

At the same time the paper commits the coalition to creating free child daycare centres, as well as increasing overall Kindergarten financing and increasing the level of parental allowance.

Europe

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives and the centre-left Social Democrats vowed in a coalition blueprint Friday that, if they form a government, they would work to strengthen the eurozone.

“We want to… in close partnership with France, sustainably strengthen and reform the eurozone so that the euro can better withstand global crises,” Germany's biggest parties said in a draft policy agreement.

Taxes

The SPD had fought for an increase in the top level of tax, but the paper does not make mention of this. According to members of Merkel’s negotiating team, the paper rules out any tax increases over the next four years.

CRIME

German far-right politician fined €13,000 for using Nazi slogan

A German court has convicted one of the country's most controversial far-right politicians, Björn Höcke, of deliberately using a banned Nazi slogan at a rally.

Published: 15 May 2024 08:43 CEST
German far-right politician fined €13,000 for using Nazi slogan

The court fined Höcke, 52, of the far-right AfD party, €13,000 for using the phrase “Alles fuer Deutschland” (“Everything for Germany”) during a 2021 campaign rally.

Once a motto of the so-called Sturmabteilung paramilitary group that played a key role in Adolf Hitler’s rise to power, the phrase is illegal in modern-day Germany, along with the Nazi salute and other slogans and symbols from that era.

The former high school history teacher claimed not to have been aware that the phrase had been used by the Nazis, telling the court he was “completely not guilty”.

Höcke said he thought the phrase was an “everyday saying”.

But prosecutors argued that Höcke used the phrase in full knowledge of its “origin and meaning”.

They had sought a six-month suspended sentence plus two years’ probation, and a payment of €10,000 to a charitable organisation.

Writing on X, formerly Twitter, after the trial, Höcke said the “ability to dissent is in jeopardy”.

“If this verdict stands, free speech will be dead in Germany,” he added.

Höcke, the leader of the AfD in Thuringia, is gunning to become Germany’s first far-right state premier when the state holds regional elections in September.

With the court ordering only a fine rather than a jail term, the verdict is not thought to threaten his candidacy at the elections.

‘AfD scandals’

The trial is one of several controversies the AfD is battling ahead of European Parliament elections in June and regional elections in the autumn in Thuringia, Brandenburg and Saxony.

Founded in 2013, the anti-Islam and anti-immigration AfD saw a surge in popularity last year – its 10th anniversary – seizing on concerns over rising migration, high inflation and a stumbling economy.

But its support has wavered since the start of 2024, as it contends with scandals including allegations that senior party members were paid to spread pro-Russian views on a Moscow-financed news website.

Considered an extremist by German intelligence services, Höcke is one of the AfD’s most controversial personalities.

He has called Berlin’s Holocaust monument a “memorial of shame” and urged a “180-degree shift” in the country’s culture of remembrance.

Höcke was convicted of using the banned slogan at an election rally in Merseburg in the state of Saxony-Anhalt in the run-up to Germany’s 2021 federal election.

READ ALSO: How worried should Germany be about the far-right AfD after mass deportation scandal?

He had also been due to stand trial on a second charge of shouting “Everything for…” and inciting the audience to reply “Germany” at an AfD meeting in Thuringia in December.

However, the court decided to separate the proceedings for the second charge, announced earlier this month, because the defence had not had enough time to prepare.

Prosecutor Benedikt Bernzen on Friday underlined the reach of Höcke’s statement, saying that a video of it had been clicked on 21,000 times on the Facebook page of AfD Sachsen-Anhalt alone.

Höcke’s defence lawyer Philip Müller argued the rally was an “insignificant campaign event” and that the offending statement was only brought to the public’s notice by the trial.

Germany’s domestic security agency has labelled the AfD in Thuringia a “confirmed” extremist organisation, along with the party’s regional branches in Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt.

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