And the center left social democrats are set to form whats known as a grand coalition that is if the bride can be persuaded to go along for it remains to be seen whether the social Democratic Party base will approve the deal so is this at best a marriage of convenience lacking in vision or could this grand coalition outperform expectations. Government wanted how we are topic on quadriga and here are our guests Charlotte Potts is a Political Correspondent here at the w and she also works for the german broadcaster. She says the new grand coalition lacks vision and so does. Alan posners with us once again hes a commentator for the daily newspaper and he says if merkels grand Coalition Holds shell be the strongest politician in the us however the s. P. D. Rank and file could put a spanner in the works and then merkel would be the weakest politician in the west and its great to have joe johnson on the show once again hes a dutch journalist and a political analyst who also works for the Election Campaign of the social democrats in germany and in the netherlands he says this continuity of grand Coalition Politics might lead to stability and progress in europe but also to growing polarization within germany. Show that the Coalition Agreement which is essentially the blueprint for the government and its goals and plans has a visionary title this is it new impetus for europe new dynamism and cohesion for germany your Opening Statement seems to indicate that you dont think the content lives up to that billing that is very true i mean i think those are grand words that do want to paint a vision for the next four years but if you look at those one hundred seventy nine pages it is really lacking vision what were seeing here is basically easy fixes to underlying problems so were seeing a lot of presents for a lot of voter groups for example families with children or pension years were giving out a little bit of money here and theyre spending the big bucks but they this Coalition Agreement is not really addressing the underlying problems that germany will have to face and that will make germany fit for the future and im talking about a very broken Pension System for example a very urgent need for digitalisation to bring reception to areas that still. Without any cell phone reception and many other issues and it is not addressing that in the matter which the two big parties in germany could address. Was there would you agree with that just taking digitalisation for example this Coalition Agreement says that its going to establish a right on the part of every german citizen no matter where they live to have high Speed Broadband by two thousand and twenty five there are number of clauses in the Coalition Agreement about education to provide Digital Skills theres quite a breakthrough in terms of the federal governments role in the Education System does that really all amount to nothing oh it doesnt amount to nothing. I dont see how you can guarantee someone access to you know a legal right to access to Broadband Technology if the firms its responsible dont provide that i mean. I think governments and keep out of that were supposed to be a market economy why does the government decide stuff like that quite generally as far as digitalisation is concerned i dont think thats a government thing its or should we say capitalism provides that capitalism provided you know i mean i dont understand why phone users in germany if they cant get access dont go out of to change their provider and you know what i mean. But the whole coalition think its not nothing i mean. I think old age pensioners for instance will be glad and future pensioners will be glad of the stuff this this governments providing them. But i agree. That its something tired and old about this. Third grand coalition weve had something tired old about the social Democratic Party which has been in government with only four years outside since one thousand nine hundred eight and i think you know its more an atmospheric thing than you know than you could. Into this does not point in the in the in the one hundred seventy nine pages and say thats wrong its most of the feeling of oh you know i wish there was something new in the air if it isnt for you as a person has worked together with social democratic parties i want to put a question to you about this social market economy as its known here in germany both of the Party Leaders when they presented this agreement professed strong allegiance to the social market economy and if you look at the Coalition Agreement it does contain a number of provisions that go in the direction of strengthening security for workers and hansing. It may not go as far as charlotte says it should but it had some pensions changing labor market and so what is the system of moderated capitalism that is in trying to in this social market economy is that really still appropriate for the times that we live in well we have to see about that if its appropriate the thing is that. You see the disco edition i think is a continuation of the sort of social market economy that we have already in the germany already know since the last ten twenty years and. The s. P. D. Has never been able to put more ideological ideology and it and especially disturbing the last time in two thousand and thirteen at least they have like minimum wage which was an anchor you know the could show to voters like they really are changing something in germany like you said its a comma here its a comma there its a few percent here its a few percent there. Just social problems in germany even though it economy goes well are still pretty big the differences between income flex work are still relatively big i dont see the s. P. D. Having a coherent story about this odor its day they participate in a sort of conservative social market economy which is very seedy you found it in. For last twenty years the ticker that atoll. If anyone has given up. On their on their ideas surely its its macro spotty short its a christian democrats its nothing conservative in that in that program plus the s. P. D. The social democrats get ministry of finance right they get the Foreign Ministry right they get the social ministry think three key ministries the. Macropod he doesnt get a single key ministry so when it comes to who actually gets the money to do what they want to do its its going to be the democrats who decide and not the christian democrats this is amazing and if they cant sell that point the concept on the thing charlotte quite a bit of money is involved this could be one of the most expensive coalitions ever if it does in fact keep all its promises forty five billion just for new projects the head of the social Democratic Party still head of the social Democratic Party because apparently its going to step down from that position martin truex said when he presented the agreement that it had the s. P. D. Stamp all over it would you agree with that well i think so i mean its not very detailed so we can cant really tell but i think it caters to the labor unions that caters to the workers there are some improvements immediate improvement for for workers and terms of contracts that all made it in there also in terms of health care so very domestic issues that the s. P. D. Could put its stamp on and i i agree that the Ministry Posts the personalities that they are pushing forward now within the social democrats that is a huge deal and the tensile are going to head herself yesterday it its been its been painful and there have been huge concessions made and using the finance ministry for her party that was a big deal and its all that enough to convince the s. P. D. Members do you think they do still have to vote on this Coalition Agreement and should they torpedo it we wont have a new governor anytime soon i think its pretty members to have a knife in their throat they have like two options are they going to suborn described coalition. Maybe not all through enthusiastic but with good minister bones with a change in leadership at the same time or begun to bring germany into a political crisis so. During the fact that there are some social elements in this in this new agreement and at the same time this post and as ministries i dont think. The voters cannot ignore and they have to approve this discoloration agreement i dont see it feel any more. What do you think. Many of the new members who joined seem to have done so expressly for the purpose of voting no i mean this is one of the big scandals of german politics that the Youth Organization of the social Democratic Party had it has been had a has been having a complain going on for the past weeks join the party and vote no so you can and you can be all you have to do is to be fourteen years old you dont even need german citizenship a fourteen year old person shall we say of turkish origin who doesnt want to become a german consumer decide basically who gets to run the country can bring the government down its its incredible to my feeling that this should be allowed but the highest court in the land just decided yesterday that this is legal i think its a scandal disgraceful well yeah and i think it did the the Youth Organization they do have a lot of. Feedback in terms of i mean they have a very strong leader at the moment with kevin communities are and he came out and said this grand Coalition Agreement he was flabbergasted about it that they could at the social democrats could sell this as a success so i think the opposition within the social democrats what we see and then what well see in the next weeks will be big but we shouldnt forget the social democrats are a grand old party so to say in germany and they have a lot of old members that will probably vote for this country no nation so i am quite hopeful that actually this deal what will be pushed through by the membership it is of course not only social democrats who say that they are not at all sure they want to see another grand coalition a majority of german said in a recent. Poll that they in fact are not enthused about the prospect german commentators have been writing that if these proposals that have been made in this Coalition Agreement on education on pensions on digitalisation and much more had been made by the german equivalent of a manual macaw people would be talking about an exciting new impetus so is the problem not the policies but the personnel lets take a look. Conservative alliance won last septembers federal election but what the sharply reduced share of the vote her political fortunes were fading. And the social democrats turned in their worst performance of the polls since one nine hundred forty nine. Some newspapers called on the chancellor to stand up and take charge of germanys political future but americal didnt seem prepared to do that. I dont know how we could have done things differently in. The. First the chancellor tried to build a coalition with the greens and the free democrats. But that effort failed when the f. D. P. Walked out of the negotiations afterward merkel kept a low profile and refused to play the blame game. Then Martin Schulz rather reluctantly agreed to preliminary talks with the conservatives on forming a grand coalition now the two sides appear to have hammered out a Coalition Agreement will angle americal have what it takes to lead a coalition. What do you think. The fact is the c. D. U. Has lost an important Ministry Finance maybe even two if you look at the fact that a new Super Interior Ministry will be going to the very Young Conservatives the sister party but not always friendly to a. C. D. U. And as we mentioned there is a rather social democratic cast to a lot of this Coalition Agreement some does that leave the chancellor significantly weaker. Yes and. The this is a further point that the coalition is built in the sort of end chancellorship is saying that in two years theyre going to review their performance and see what they have to do this basically means that in two years you know the opposition within. The c. D. U. Has the chance to build up a new candidate to succeed and give her the position to retire gracefully probably saying well we did what we could and its great you know im going in there going to give a flowers of the center of and then i think its going to get really interesting see which way the c. D. U. Goes presumably is going to tack to the right but i would say. Shes holding on but not for long show that you said in your Opening Statement that she lacks vision but mightnt she develop it in this last term in office many leaders do suddenly begin to think about the history books in their last term would you expect thats possibly hear or see becomes a lame duck i mean she had the chance to really change bring about change for twelve years and forget shes been governing for twelve years and i think she had seen a lot of improvements for germany and some reforms but never she was never a politician of grand vision and i dont see that coming in the next four years i think she is c. B. S. Weakened on a National Level after really the last four months have been a disaster for her and very difficult in trying to form this Coalition Government. Globally in the end i think it wont matter i think she will still play a very strong role as chancellor as the german chancellor shell be very well regarded but nationally she lost Political Capital and it will be very hard for her in the next four years even though a successor we also have to say that its not inside shes been keeping them very on the down low and the two that i thought. Might be rising within the party did not get ministry post as far as we know so its going to be interesting to see who will rise up in the party in the next four years yep jetson one of the achilles heels of the chancellor perhaps the ecclesia was immigration her decision to open germanys doors in two thousand and fifteen strongly criticized including by this but very and conservatives i just mentioned they will now take charge of the interior ministry does that mean that we are going to see a strict upper limit on immigration and essentially c. S. U. Interior Ministry Minister possibly flouting uncle america while flouting maybe not i mean its already a pretty big thing i think that they already agreed on its a little bit diffuse they agreed on between one hundred eighty and two hundred thousand migrants a year which is already kind of a victory for sees you and i think what you have seen with marco she has from the moment on that you open the borders and she said like often does. Then from that moment on she started to to have a much more right wing chorus on me gratian much more strict of course she had a very tough integration policy and restricted migration policy and under the leadership of the this years you you can you can assume that there will be some more tough measures on integration and migration but in which direction that goes its still very vague and the everymans ellen if merkel is significantly weaker what does that mean for europe. Well i think this is what this coalition means europe is it is the following shorts is going to be marking shows from its beauty is going to be foreign minister hes the most euro file foreign minister. Government germany has ever had the natives are and how to move toward himself he is going to aim for a sort of a mock all type europe a tight integration of the euro zone possibly a European Finance minister European Economic economics minister possibly even euro bonds and obviously america isnt going to stop in big because the finance. Bill in the finance ministry was structured europe now the s. P. D. Has got that too so this is quite incurred i mean im i magine champagne bottles of popping all over the palace and the ballet mall the siege of the European Commission in the last insane fact one person who has been waiting a very long time for a German Government to get up and running is french president Emmanuel Mccall in a speech at the store bun last september he outlined his vision of europes future including a common strategy on financial foreign and defense policy he said quote i dont have red lines i have only horizons americal and Martin Schultz agree on many european policy issues including the implementation of e. U. Reforms and strengthening the european economy against increasing International Competition so will the new Ground Coalition if it indeed comes to power be able to take bold new measures on european and Foreign Policy you know mr mccall actually time to that speech that we just saw excerpts from to coincide with the german election in the hope of influencing Coalition Negotiations he has made it clear he is waiting for a response from berlin and what i heard from a number of conservative parliamentary members yesterday as i was in the bundestag was th