The agreement for a red-green-red coalition in the state of Bremen has cleared another important hurdle. SPD and Greens approved the 140-page draft by large majorities at separate party conventions on Saturday.
"Red-Green-Red is a new departure, a new beginning," asserted SPD state leader Sascha Karolin Aulepp. This could well serve as a model for the federal government. As a candidate for mayor, the SPD delegates nominated the 53-year-old lawyer Andreas Bovenschulte – with 95.9 percent approval. 140 delegates voted yes, three voted no. There were three abstentions.
The SPD delegates approved the coalition agreement without any "no" votes; there were four abstentions. The red-green-red coalition is a huge opportunity for Bremen, Bremerhaven and the SPD, said Bovenschulte. "But we have to take advantage of this opportunity now, because we won’t get another one."Bovenschulte is to succeed outgoing mayor Carsten Sieling (SPD), who was elected as a consequence of the SPD election disaster of 26. May had announced his retirement.
At the party conference of the Greens, there were also no no votes against the coalition agreement, one member abstained. "The coalition agreement bears a Green signature," said parliamentary group leader Maike Schaefer. Climate protection was the big parenthesis over the agreement, she said. "There will be no decision that is unfriendly to the climate."
Bremen’s CDU leader Carsten Meyer-Heder stressed that after the Left Party, the SPD and the Greens had also voted in favor of a "carry on like this" in Bremen, as expected. Bovenschulte would continue the policies of his predecessor as president of the Senate. "I therefore do not expect a departure in terms of content or personnel," he told the Deutsche Presse-Agentur. The people of Bremen would once again have a mayor who had not stood for election, but had been chosen "in the back room". "Such a procedure encourages disenchantment with politics," Meyer-Heder stressed, with which the CDU on 26. May had become the strongest party in the state for the first time in more than 70 years.
Already on Thursday evening, a party conference of the Left had approved the agreement. There follows, however, to the 22. July still a member survey, which is binding.
The draft of the coalition agreement provides, among other things, for significantly increased climate protection, a traffic turnaround with the goal of a car-free inner city by 2030, and labor market programs for single parents. Coal-fired power plants in Germany’s smallest state are to be taken off the grid by 2023, and local public transport (oPNV) is to be expanded.
Should the red-green-red state government come about as expected, it would be the first red-green-red government in a western German state. The new senate (state government) presents itself on the 15. August in the citizenry to the vote.
The SPD had lost in the state election six weeks ago almost eight percentage points and its historically worst election result brought in. The Greens had made significant gains and opted for negotiations on a red-green-red alliance and against a Jamaica alliance with CDU and FDP.