New government to start work on May 6th
CDU leader Friedrich Merz is expected to be elected chancellor on May 6th, several news agencies and newspapers have reported, citing information from party sources.
The swearing in of ministers to the new cabinet is likely to happen on the same day.
According to Merz, the government wants to rapidly pass a spate of legislation in the two months remaining before the summer break. This could include tougher border controls and measures to slash bureaucracy.
Media reports indicate that planning for the Bundestag election is already well underway even though the SPD and CDU's approval of the coalition agreement is still pending. The election cannot take place until the two parties' approval is in place.
This is likely to happen at a CDU party conference held on April 28th, and through an SPD members' ballot that's due to conclude on the 29th.
The Bavarian CSU voted to approve the coalition agreement last week.
READ ALSO: How soon will Germany's new government take office?
Income tax cut for small and medium incomes 'not fixed'
Chancellor-elect Friedrich Merz has acknowledged that workers in Germany could face financial losses under his watch.
Workers' fears that they will end up with less money at the end of his term were "certainly not unfounded from today's perspective," he told Bild am Sonntag. He went on to say that the income tax cuts for small and medium incomes announced in the coalition agreement were "not fixed," and an increase in the minimum wage to €15 was "not agreed upon."
Indeed, the coalition agreement between the CDU/CSU and SPD states: "We will reduce income tax for small and medium incomes halfway through the legislative period". However, no further details - other than a target in two years' time - have been announced.
"We would have liked to have agreed on this from the beginning in the coalition with the Social Democrats. There was disagreement about it. That's why we left it open," Merz explained to the paper, saying that the government wanted to reduce income taxes "if the public budget allows it."
SPD General Secretary Matthias Miersch told the Funke Media Group newspapers that the tax cut was "a central concern of the SPD". He said the CDU/CSU were aware "how important this point is to us." However, he too said that the tax cut, "like all projects, is subject to funding."
READ ALSO: How Germany's new coalition will affect your bank balance
Merz also noted that the coalition agreement did not provide for an increase in the statutory minimum wage to €15 gross per hour.
"We have agreed that we will assume that the Minimum Wage Commission is thinking in this direction," he told Bild am Sonntag." However, setting the minimum wage remains the responsibility of the Minimum Wage Commission, he said. The current minimum wage is €12.82.
Victim and attacker die after Berlin U-Bahn knife attack
A 43-year-old man said to have fatally stabbed a 29-year-old man on an U-Bahn train in Berlin has died of his injuries after being shot by a police officer after Saturday's attack.
According to police and prosecutors, there is currently no evidence of an Islamist terrorist motive.
The 43-year-old Syrian is said to have stabbed the 29-year-old German man three times with a kitchen knife on a U12 underground train in western Berlin on Saturday afternoon.
The men are reported to have clashed "within seconds", pushing one another before the 43-year-old pulled the knife from his waistband.
The 29-year-old was able to exit the train on his own at the Sophie-Charlotte-Platz U-Bahn station in Charlottenburg, but then collapsed on the platform. He died on the spot despite attempts at resuscitation.
The alleged attacker fled onto Schloßstraße near Charlottenburg Palace where he was was shot several times by a police officer before being taken to hospital for emergency surgery. He died on Sunday morning.
READ ALSO: 'Half of Germans feel less safe' - Why the interior minister wants to ban knives
It is not currently believed that the men knew one another and the reasons for the stabbing remain unclear.
Both were known to the police and the courts, having been previously convicted of assault, resisting and assaulting law enforcement officers, and violations of the Narcotics Act on multiple occasions.
Home ownership 'virtually impossible without inheritance', says Greens MP
It is now almost impossible for young people to own their own home unless they have inherited money, Green Party parliamentary group leader Katharina Dröge told the Funke Media Group newspapers on Sunday.
"Rents are rising so dramatically, especially in large cities, that many families can no longer find suitable housing. And without an inheritance, it is virtually impossible for young people to own a home today."
Dröge called on the CDU/CSU and SPD to do more to ensure a fair distribution of wealth and affordable housing, criticising the distribution of wealth and inheritance in Germany as "extremely unequal."
"The CDU and SPD failed in their coalition agreement to make the country more just," she said.
"They have taken the smallest possible step in limiting excessive rents. There isn't a single sentence in the coalition agreement regarding a fairer distribution of wealth or inheritances."
According to the coalition agreement between the CDU/CSU and SPD, rent control will be extended for an initial four years. A group of experts is to develop a reform by the end of 2026 with controversial index-linked rents set to be more strictly regulated in strained housing markets.
READ ALSO: Which German cities are the most in need of new housing?
Scholz condemns Russia's 'barbaric attack' on Ukrainian city
Responding to the Russian missile attack on the eastern Ukrainian city of Sumy, which left more than 30 dead, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Sunday that "Germany condemns this barbaric attack in the strongest terms".
"Such Russian attacks demonstrate the state of Russia's alleged willingness to make peace," he said in Berlin.
According to Ukrainian rescue workers, ballistic missiles fired by Russia struck the city centre of Sumy on Sunday, killing at least 32 people. About 100 people were also injured. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on Kyiv's allies to exert more pressure on Moscow.
The images from Sumy were "horrific" and showed that "Russia is mercilessly continuing its war of aggression against Ukraine," Scholz said, calling for Russia to "finally agree to a comprehensive ceasefire".
Meanwhile, incoming chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) accused Russia of committing a "serious war crime".
"It was a perfidious act.. and it is a serious war crime, deliberate and intended," he said in comments to broadcaster ARD on Sunday.
"There are two waves of attacks, and the second arrived as emergency workers were taking care of the victims," said Merz. "That is the response, that is what Putin does to those who talk with him of a ceasefire."
More Germans ditching their cars to go by foot
Travel habits, especially in large cities, are changing. A new survey found that, increasingly, people are choosing to walk rather than jumping in the car.
The share of journeys made by car in metropolitan areas fell to 26 percent in 2023 from 31 percent in 2018, according to a survey on mobility by the Technical University of Dresden.
Smaller cities and regions saw a lesser reduction in car usage, while in rural areas where the number of journeys made by car increased slightly.
In large cities, the number of journeys made on foot rose by five percentage points to 33 percent over the period. Bicycle use also increased slightly, but there was little change to public transport usage.
Study authors attribute these changes largely to the Covid-19 pandemic, which was still being felt in 2023, and with people now working from home more frequently rather than travelling to the office daily.
With additional reporting from AFP and DPA
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