German coalition reaches key agreement on electric vehicles, benefits
Germany’s ruling coalition has reached important agreements on electric vehicle subsidies, pensions and a new basic income support scheme, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Thursday.
After a marathon eight-hour session of deliberations in the Chancellery that lasted well into Wednesday night, a deal was sealed between Merz’s conservative bloc and the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), boosting the chancellor’s hopes of implementing his much-touted “autumn of reforms.”
At a press conference in Berlin on Thursday, Merz said “there will be a new basic jobseeker benefit, as agreed in the coalition agreement.”
The focus is on tightening up the obligations of benefit recipients and cracking down on abuse of the system.
“We will significantly strengthen obligations to cooperate and we will also significantly increase the possibilities for sanctions,” Merz added.
The policy had faced resistance from the left flank of the SPD, but was pushed through by the party’s leaders, Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil and Labour Minister Bärbel Bas.
The new benefit is to replace the existing “citizen’s benefit” for jobseekers, which only took effect in early 2023.
Further topics of Wednesday’s meeting of the coalition committee included equal rights for people with disabilities and the crisis in the car industry, ahead of a major summit for the automotive sector at the Chancellery later on Thursday.
The government is set to offer new incentives for low and medium-income households to purchase electric vehicles, aiming to support the transition to climate-neutral mobility.
