From cannabis to refugees, Scholz plans to leave progressive mark on Germany

Germany’s new coalition partners have struggled to reach consensus on everything from taxes to pensions to climate change. But one thing unites them: a desire to be the country’s most socially progressive government in more than a generation.

The coalition agreement they presented on Wednesday includes a broad array of policies that could have a huge positive impact on immigrants, lesbian parents, transsexuals and other minorities.

“My heart is racing with joy,” said Greta Garlichs, spokeswoman for QueerGrün, the Greens’ LGBTQ+ lobby group. “So many queer people are writing to me saying how relieved and happy they are.”

The coalition deal contains a range of proposals designed to please libertarians and progressives. Cannabis will be legalised, the voting age lowered to 16 and mass video surveillance in German cities banned.

The new government also promises to create a more welcoming regime for immigrants. It will make it easier for them to obtain residence permits and, ultimately, German citizenship, and smooth the entry of foreign skilled workers into the German labour market.

“The fact that we are finally owning up to being a country of immigration is really groundbreaking,” said Jessica Rosenthal, head of the Jusos, the SPD’s youth wing. “It’s truly a breakthrough.”

Business also welcomed the plans. “With our population ageing, Germany needs net immigration of 400,000 a year and it seems the new government really understands that,” said one senior financial services executive. “This is hardcore economics.”

The coalition deal was the fruit of a month of negotiations between Social Democrats, Greens and liberals following national elections on September 26 that resulted in a narrow SPD victory. The agreement allows Olaf Scholz, the current finance minister, to succeed Angela Merkel, who is retiring from politics after 16 years as chancellor of Europe’s largest economy.

The parties in the Scholz-led “traffic light” coalition — named after their traditional colours — are not natural allies. The Greens and SPD campaigned on a promise to raise taxes on high-earners and invest heavily in mitigating climate change, while the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) are fiscal hawks wedded to the free market and opposed to tax hikes.

However, “though a lot separates them in the economic dimension . . . [all three] fully agree with each other on social policy,” said Thorsten Faas, a political scientist at Berlin’s Free University. “It means they have this area they can always retreat to in order to emphasise their similarities.”

The policies being proposed will affect a broad range of constituencies. Pro-choice campaigners, for example, were heartened by the decision to abolish article 219a of the German penal code, which prohibits abortion doctors from advertising their services.

“I think it’s super,” Kristina Hänel told Der Spiegel. The doctor and activist became a cause célèbre in 2017 after being fined €6,000 for stating on her website that she carried out terminations.

The coalition partners also promised a law change that will help lesbian couples with a child: currently only the biological mother is legally recognised as a parent and her partner must formally adopt the child to obtain custody rights. Under the deal agreed on Wednesday both women would be recognised as the child’s legal mothers.

“That’s a historic success for the queer community,” said Garlichs. The previous rule “had always been a massive burden.”

The new government also plans to abolish Germany’s law on transsexuals, which dates from 1981, replacing it with a “self-determination law” designed to make it easier for people to declare a change of sex. The ban on gay men and transsexuals donating blood will also be removed.

On immigration, the coalition partners want to make it easier for refugees to be reunited with close family members who are still languishing in third countries. More asylum-seekers will be able to take up jobs. Immigrants with no criminal record who have lived in Germany for five years will be entitled to a one-year residence permit. People seeking naturalisation in Germany will no longer be forced to renounce all their other citizenships.

The proposed policies have earned harsh criticism from some quarters. Police unions have slammed the plan to legalise cannabis. Pro-life campaigners oppose the abolition of article 219a. Conservatives fear the planned policies will undermine the traditional concept of the family.

But most commentators have been positive. “The truth is, there’s a political majority in this country in favour of these changes,” the Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote on Friday. “And everyone else will just have to live with it.”