Germany’s SPD approves coalition deal, paving way for new government

Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) has approved a coalition agreement with Friedrich Merz’s conservative bloc in a members’ ballot, paving the way for the new German government to take office next week, sources told dpa on Wednesday.

Party insiders said 84.6% of members backed the agreement in a vote that took place over two weeks and ended on Tuesday.

The centre-left SPD is to become the junior party in the incoming administration alongside chancellor-in-waiting Merz’s Christian Democratic Union and its sister party, the Christian Social Union – both of which have already rubber-stamped the coalition deal.

Merz is set to be elected chancellor on May 6 in a session of the Bundestag, Germany’s lower house of parliament, just over two months since his centre-right bloc won February’s federal election.