For more than a year, the FDP, SPD and Greens have been on the trigger: Which of their projects have already been implemented – where are the problems?Image: dpa / Kay Nietfeld
Germany
“Dare to make more progress” is the title of the coalition agreement with which the traffic light government started in 2021. The self-proclaimed progressive coalition had ambitious plans. Especially in the areas of climate protection, market economy and society.
Then came the Russian attack on Ukraine. war in Europe. Energy Crisis, Inflation. An old coalition agreement in a new era. Again and again, the coalition partners are faced with decisions that they have not recorded in the coalition agreement.
Nevertheless, the question arises: What has the coalition implemented so far? Watson does the check for you in the categories of sustainability, diversity, equality and equal opportunities.
What did the traffic light trigger to promote sustainability?
According to the coalition agreement, climate protection should become a cross-cutting task. So important for all areas of government. Among other things, climate checks were planned, with which the individual ministries should examine laws for climate compatibility. This control mechanism has not yet been introduced. According to the “mirror” the concept for these checks should come in the first half of 2023.
Another point in the coalition agreement: the exit from coal. Ideally, this should be brought forward eight years, i.e. by 2030. The Ministry of Economic Affairs was supposed to present a review in the summer of 2022, which would mean an earlier exit for the security of supply – but the Ministry of Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) did not manage to do this in time. This report is now due to be presented in 2023.
The phase-out of coal in North Rhine-Westphalia has actually already been brought forward to 2030.
Although the exit from coal is preferred in North Rhine-Westphalia, the village of Lützerath has to give way to coal mining.Image: dpa / Federico Gambarini
It was also planned to cover at least 80 percent of the energy requirement with solar and wind systems by 2030. For this reason, acceleration procedures are currently being launched – there is now an emergency regulation at EU level that is intended to speed up approvals.
The planned onshore wind law is also scheduled to come into force in February. It is intended to promote the expansion of wind turbines throughout Germany and makes the federal states responsible for this. The EEG surcharge was already suspended in the summer of 2022.
The government has not yet presented the promised immediate climate protection program.
Environment Minister Steffi Lemke (Greens) campaigned for global species protection at the World Nature Summit, as stipulated in the treaty. With success: In December, the 193 states agreed to promote species protection and to protect 30 percent of land and sea areas by 2030. In Germany, too, there is now a new species protection program.
Has Germany already become more diverse?
Because the greatest danger comes from the right, the traffic light government has made it its task to take decisive action against anti-democratic tendencies. Also by strengthening civil society. A democracy promotion law was planned for this purpose. And the bill was actually decided by the cabinet in December. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) calls civil society the “bulwark against extremism”.
The aim of the law is to reliably promote civil society commitment and projects. So far, only short funding periods have been possible. However, the law is intended to give the federal government an explicit mandate to promote democratic initiatives.
It should be easier for refugees like these two men from Algeria to build a life in Germany.Image: dpa / Philipp von Ditfurth
With the right to residency and the naturalization reform that the Minister of the Interior is aiming for, the traffic light has kept two more promises from the coalition agreement. It remains to be seen whether the governing parties will succeed with their immigration plans – the Union has harshly criticized the draft.
Another promise in the coalition agreement: Trans* people should find it easier to live independently. And the traffic light was at least the beginning. Justice Minister Marco Buschmann and Family Minister Lisa Paus already presented the bill before. This is intended to replace the discriminatory transsexual law of 1980. In the future, it should be possible to change names and genders in the registry office.
The coalition also initiated the “National Action Plan for Sexual and Gender Diversity”. Among other things, this is intended to provide more education in schools.
The queer community takes to the streets every year on Christopher Street Day for more equality.Image: IMAGO/photo booth
Actually, the coalition partners also wanted to work quickly to ensure that gays are allowed to donate blood without any problems. Because this ban is also discriminatory. So far nothing has happened here. The planned community of responsibility, which should be equal to marriage, should also be at the earliest end of 2023 come.
How did Traffic Light advance equality in its first year?
The traffic light has already taken the biggest planned step in terms of equal rights and self-determination for women: The abolition of paragraph 219a – the ban on doctors from providing information about abortions on their websites – much to the displeasure of Union and AfD. Nevertheless, abortion is still in the Penal Code, just behind the criminal offense of murder.
And that’s where the path to equality almost ends. In the coalition agreement, the traffic light is planning an equal rights check for new laws and an end to the gender data gap in medicine. However, nothing has happened in these areas yet.
To close the gender pay gap, there was also a new one Pay Transparency Act planned to promote equal pay for men and women. Nothing has been sharpened here yet. That too Leadership Positions Actwhich makes business responsible for filling posts, has not yet been touched.
What has the government done for equal opportunities?
At the end of the decade, the announced socio-political reform of the decade turned into a small reform. Nonetheless, the traffic light government managed to get citizen income through in its first year. The Hartz IV successor is scheduled to come into force in 2023. Recipients will then get 50 euros more per month, and the additional income limits will also be raised. For children in particular, this means that they can keep the money they earn from summer jobs, for example.
Minister of Labor Hubertus Heil pushed through a social reform in 2022.Image: dpa / Britta Pedersen
It will be a while before there is basic child security, which the government promised in the coalition agreement. However, it is still planned to combine child benefit and additional benefits for families with low incomes in the future. But probably not before 2024.
In order to better support students and trainees, the coalition has also initiated a student loan reform. More people now get higher amounts. So far, however, the state support is still not independent of parents, although the traffic light has planned it. And the government not only wanted to invest more money in the training of young adults, but also in schools and day-care centers. So far not much has happened here.
In autumn 2022, the minimum wage was raised to 12 euros. The government has thus kept its promise – although the increase is currently being eaten up by inflation.
The first quarter of the legislative period has now ended, so the traffic light government has a lot to do in the next three years.
The large aquarium Aquadom burst in the capital at the Berlin Cathedral on Friday morning. According to the operators, it was the “largest, cylindrical, free-standing aquarium in the world”: 16 meters high, 11.5 meters wide. Guests could ride through the interior of the aquarium in an elevator. In the cylinder were a million liters of water and 1500 fish.
