Two months after its general election, Germany finally has a new government, a three-party agreement melding disparate political outlooks that will be hard to contain. The “traffic light” coalition is made up of the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), the German Greens and the centre-Left Social Democrats (SPD), whose leader Olaf Scholz will be the new chancellor.

The immediate challenge for the administration concerns its handling of a dramatic upsurge in Covid cases, with Germany recording another 70,000 cases and more than 300 deaths yesterday. The three parties have differing views, with the FDP opposed to nationwide lockdowns and compulsory vaccination while the SPD is said to be undecided. The disease is exacerbating the German divide, with infections relatively lower in the west of the country while in the east hospitals are overflowing. 

Another point of potential attrition is energy and environmental policy, which has been placed in the hands of the Greens. The coalition deal envisages phasing out coal by 2030 and gas by 2040. Since Germany has the largest population in the EU and is the bloc’s biggest energy user due to its manufacturing sector, it is hard to see how its future needs will be met. Germany has already turned its back on nuclear power following the accident that befell the reactor in Fukushima in 2011. Much of its gas comes from Russia with the dispute over the new Nord Stream 2 pipeline still unresolved. Whether and when to proceed with this scheme will be another issue to be resolved. 

Germany is dependent on imported fossil fuels which the Greens will presumably seek to eradicate from the energy mix. The pace of decarbonisation will shift reliance onto intermittent renewables such as wind or solar which cannot possibly meet the country’s demand. While technological advances will help, the timetable seems far too ambitious to be realistic.

One sign of the political shift Leftward is a list of “progressive” policies including cannabis legalisation and family reunion for immigrants, the latter a legacy of the outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ill-starred decision to open the country’s borders in 2015. Though she remains in office for another fortnight, with problems mounting in Germany she looked relieved to be handing over the reins after 16 years in power.