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Mixed Signals from Germany’s Traffic-Light Coalition

When Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party government took office at the end of 2021, it promised to “dare more progress,” signaling a break from the complacency that characterized the last years of Angela Merkel’s chancellorship. But now, 16 months later, surviving the next election has become the more pressing goal.

BERLIN – The policy bottlenecks that many people thought would impede Germany’s Ampelkoalition (“traffic-light coalition”) have materialized, well into its second year in power. The country’s first three-party government since the 1950s, comprising the Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens, and the Liberal Democrats (FDP), took office with an ambitious agenda and high hopes for far-reaching reform. The almost 200-page coalition agreement promised to “Dare More Progress,” signaling a break from the complacency that characterized the last years of Angela Merkel’s chancellorship.

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