Eight weeks after the state elections in Bremen, the new edition of the red-green-red government alliance is about to be completed. State party conferences of the SPD and Greens approved the negotiated coalition agreement with large majorities on Saturday. The Left Party wanted to vote on Sunday. The agreement is expected to be officially signed on Monday. On Wednesday (July 5th) the parliament is to elect the new senate headed by Mayor Andreas Bovenschulte (SPD). Red-Green-Red has ruled in the smallest federal state since 2019.
The new contract is “a good compromise with a clear social democratic signature,” said Bovenschulte in front of 130 delegates. “We want to make an active labor and industrial policy.” The SPD relies on a strong economy and good jobs; on this basis, social tasks such as internal security and education could be fulfilled. “The priority is to provide all children with a daycare place,” said Bovenschulte.
Senator for Economics to be responsible for ports in the future
Nevertheless, concessions to the partners played a role in the party congresses. Many SPD members frowned on the fact that Economics Senator Kristina Vogt (Left Party) will be responsible for the ports in the future. “We won’t let our port be taken away from us,” said a comrade from Seestadt.
Bovenschulte assured: “In this constellation, we will have a massive influence on port policy.” It had been possible to force the left into cabinet discipline at the Energy Port. The new port facility in Bremerhaven is intended to support wind energy at sea and serve as a transhipment point for renewable energies.
The determinations on hospital policy reaped the most opposition at the party congress. The coalition partners want to centralize services in the loss-making Bremen clinic group Geno. Among other things, a heart center that is important throughout Germany is to move from the Klinikum links der Weser to the Klinikum Bremen-Mitte. Nevertheless, in the end there were mostly yes votes with a few votes against and abstentions.
SPD staff named for future state government
The party congress also named the SPD staff for the future state government – starting with Bovenschulte as mayor and president of the Senate. According to this, Interior Senator Ulrich Mäurer should continue, as should Education Senator Sascha Karolin Aulepp. The previous port senator Claudia Schilling is to take over the department for social affairs, labor and justice.
The new building senator is to be Özlem Ünsal from Kiel, a former SPD member of the Schleswig-Holstein state parliament. This raised internal questions because the parliamentarian Falk Wagner would have been available as a suitable Bremen candidate. With him, however, the quota for women would have been violated. Bovenschulte recognized Ünsal’s experience in construction policy in Kiel. For the vote, he called for unity within the party: “If we want to be successful, the most important requirement is that we are united.” In the individual voting, Ünsal received a good result.
The Greens also had a lot of approval of the coalition agreement – even if the party lost votes in the election on May 14 and its influence in the alliance has shrunk. “After the election result, we could hardly have expected to be able to anchor so many green programs in a coalition agreement,” said head of state Alexandra Werwarth. Green Senate members are to be Björn Fecker (finance) and Kathrin Moosdorf (climate, environment, science).
