German Conservatives Strike Coalition Deal With Social Democrats

Policy changes include migration and military service, but the conservative leader faces pressure as the right-wing AfD is topping the polls for the first time.

German Chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz speaks to the media in Berlin, Germany, on March 14, 2025. Axel Schmidt/Reuters

German conservatives under Friedrich Merz have agreed on a coalition deal with the center-left Social Democrats (SPD).

On April 9, at a news conference with his coalition partners, Merz, Germany’s chancellor-in-waiting and leader of the Christian Democratic Union party (CDU), said the pact “is a very strong and clear signal to the citizens of our country.”

“And it is also a clear signal to our partners in the European Union,” he said.

The center-right CDU emerged as the winner of the February elections but has been locked in lengthy coalition talks since then, as the party fell well short of a majority.

Merz said the deal is “a very strong and clear signal to the people of our country, and also a clear signal to our partners in the European Union: Germany is getting a government that is capable of acting and will act strongly.”

A survey by Ipsos recently showed the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party topping the polls for the first time with 25 percent, overtaking Merz’s conservatives, who slipped to 24 percent.

Merz has vowed never to govern with the AfD, which came in second in the general election, even though doing so would ensure a clear majority.

In terms of policy changes, Merz highlighted several key measures the new government intends to pursue, including immigration reforms.

Merz said the new government will suspend family reunions for many immigrants, designate more “safe countries of origin,” launch a “return offensive” for rejected asylum-seekers, and turn some people back at Germany’s borders in consultation with neighbors.

He said he would abolish the “turbo naturalization” of immigrants after three years of stay.

The new government also wanted to create a “digitization ministry.”

“Not everything has to be regulated down to the smallest detail,” said SPD co-leader Lars Klingbeil. “The diggers must work and the fax machines in our country must be thrown away. Our economy must grow.”

The coalition also plans to reduce the size of the federal administration by 8 percent over its four-year term. But Merz said that he didn’t want to do it like the Elon Musk-led U.S. Department of Government Efficiency.

“We’re not hiring an Elon Musk here who will do it like they do in Washington,” he said. “We will do it ... sensibly, with a sense of proportion.”

Germany will also introduce a new military service—on a voluntary basis for now—after suspending conscription in 2011.

Merz’s approval ratings suffered over his decision to embark on a huge debt-funded spending program.

After winning the election, Merz had rallied support for a half-trillion-euro spending plan aimed at modernizing the military and stimulating economic growth.

This was despite a cornerstone of Merz’s campaign to uphold Germany’s strict constitutional borrowing limit, known as the debt brake, or Schuldenbremse.

About 60 percent of Germans are in favor of keeping the debt brake.

The CDU manifesto said: “Now is the time to ... uphold the debt brake enshrined in the German Constitution (Grundgesetz). Today’s debts are tomorrow’s tax increases.”

Politicians foresee a 500 billion euro ($543 billion) fund, financed by borrowing, for infrastructure in Germany over the next 12 years to support its struggling economy.

After the vote, U.S. credit rating agency Fitch Ratings said it expects 900 billion euros to 1 trillion euros ($974 billion to $1.08 trillion) in additional spending from Germany over the next decade.

Before the election, Ralph Schoellhammer, political theorist and head of the Center for Applied History at Mathias Corvinus Collegium, told The Epoch Times that people voted for CDU because they wanted a center-right government but predicted they’d probably end up “getting a slightly left-of-center government.”

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.