BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany’s three-way coalition talks are heating up as the two smaller parties, the pro-spending Greens and the more fiscally conservative Free Democrats (FDP), are both wrangling over who should take the powerful finance minister job.
With the European Union discussing whether the fight against climate change requires reform of the bloc’s joint fiscal rules - suspended until 2023 due to the pandemic - much is at stake in the duel being fought in secretive negotiations in Berlin.
While FDP leader Christian Lindner, 42, has made no secret of his wish to become finance minister, Greens co-leader Robert Habeck, 52, has so far avoided making public demands - though he is equally determined to get the top position, party sources said.
Olaf Scholz, the outgoing finance minister who led his centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) to a surprise election victory in September, wants Habeck and Lindner to find a compromise, according to a person familiar with his thinking.
When speaking in private, Scholz, 63, says “the boys” have been sparring for too long and an agreement must be found soon, according to the source.
Scholz himself has shown that it makes a difference who is heading the finance ministry: During the pandemic, he convinced Chancellor Angela Merkel to ditch the goal of balanced budget and fiscal discipline for which his conservative predecessor Wolfgang Schaeuble was known.