A coalition agreement has been reached in Germany, which will see Friedrich Merz, the head of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), become chancellor.
The CDU has agreed to form a coalition with the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the CDU’s Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU). In the Bundestag – the German Parliament – the CDU and CSU act as a single party.
The three parties have 328 seats in the Bundestag, enough for a majority in the 650-seat Bundestag.
The parties have agreed to a policy framework in a document of nearly 150 pages, where there are agreements on migration, defence spending, and tax.
Merz said that the agreement sent a “strong and clear signal” to US President Donald Trump, and that “Germany is back on track”.
Recent polling shows that the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AFD), which was the second-biggest party in the country’s recent election, is now either slightly ahead of the CDU or tied with it. It’s the first time that nationwide polling in Germany has shown this.