The package contains no unexpected measures but brings back 62 highlights from the coalition agreement — which the government wants to have on track before the mid-July parliamentary summer break.
This was the first coalition committee meeting between Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union party and Vice-Chancellor Lars Klingbeil’s Social Democrats, and lasted just a few hours. They agreed to hold such meetings as a regular fixture.
It was considered a good start by observers. Meetings of the previous government, led by Olaf Scholz, often lasted until the early hours of the morning and became more of a crisis instrument. Scholz’s government fell apart during a fractious coalition committee meeting on Nov. 6, 2024, leading to new elections this year.
Among the 62 measures agreed are tax changes including a reduction in the electricity tax and on-trend, regulation-busting moves: The national supply chain act will be abolished, for example, and the document states that the European supply chain act should be implemented “in a low-bureaucracy and enforcement-friendly manner.”
Besides economic issues, the program includes items on migration, electoral law, modernization of the state and a subject close to the heart of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen: the hunting of wolves.
“It’s all happening now,” Merz said in a statement to present the program.
Klingbeil, who also serves as finance minister, added: “We all want to see improvements quickly in everyday life, at work and in every region.”
