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Viewing cable 09FRANKFURT2318, SAARLAND ELECTION AFTERMATH: GREENS TAKING THE SLOW ROAD

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
09FRANKFURT2318 2009-09-04 12:50 2011-08-24 01:00 UNCLASSIFIED Consulate Frankfurt
VZCZCXRO8913
OO RUEHAG RUEHDF RUEHLZ
DE RUEHFT #2318 2471250
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 041250Z SEP 09
FM AMCONSUL FRANKFURT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 1710
INFO RUCNFRG/FRG COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE
UNCLAS FRANKFURT 002318 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/CE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON PGOV GM
SUBJECT:  SAARLAND ELECTION AFTERMATH: GREENS TAKING THE SLOW ROAD 
TO GOVERNMENT TO AVOID NATIONAL ELECTION CONTROVERSY 
 
1.  Summary: (SBU) Torn between the Social Democratic Party (SPD) 
and the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) as prospective coalition 
partners, the Saarland Greens have chosen to postpone a decision 
until after the 27 September Bundestag elections.  Instead they will 
conduct informal talks with all the parties before holding regional 
party meetings this month and a state party convention, probably on 
October 10, to decide with which party they want to begin formal 
coalition negotiations.  Greens officials have told the Consulate 
that the national party supports waiting until October to keep their 
options open and avoid a decision that might split the party and 
hurt it in the Bundestag vote.  Greens General Secretary Tressel 
acknowledged to the press that the national Greens party would like 
a leftist coalition with the SPD and the Left Party.  He insisted, 
however, that the state party will decide and it is equally 
considering a coalition with incumbent Minister-President Peter 
Mueller's CDU and the centrist Free Democratic Party (FDP).  Both 
sides have offered to make concessions to the Greens, but are 
considering just how much given that the Greens have just three 
seats in the 51-member parliament.   END SUMMARY. 
 
2.  The Greens continue to say that the SPD is their preferred 
partner but that they have serious substantive disagreements with 
the Left Party on substance particularly the latter's support for 
coal mining.  Perhaps even more important, however, are personal 
animosities between the Greens leaders, particularly state party 
chief Ulrich, and two of the Left Party members of parliament who 
once were Greens members. The August 30 Saarland state election put 
the Greens in the driver seat in determining the next government 
coalition; both the CDU and FDP, with 19 and 5 seats, respectively, 
and the SPD and Left Party, with 13 and 11 seats, respectively, are 
short of the 26 votes needed to elect a minister-president in 
Saarland.  Both sides have quickly made gestures to the Greens. 
CDU's Mueller said publicly August 31 that he is ready to discuss 
removing university tuitions, a policy he had initiated, and to make 
other policy concessions such as increasing support for public 
transportation or considering a full ban on smoking in restaurants 
in order to clinch a deal with the Greens.  On the left, SPD leader 
Maas is being relatively tight-lipped in public but is reportedly 
working behind-the-scenes to gain concessions from the Left Party. 
 
 
3.  While informal talks will continue to take place, little real 
progress is likely to come before the September 27 Bundestag vote. 
Greens officials have told the Consulate that the national party 
supports waiting until October to keep their options open and avoid 
a decision that might split the party and hurt it in the Bundestag 
vote.  National party leaders clearly are leaning toward a 
red-red-green coalition, but one Hesse state-level official told the 
Consulate that  Saarland is also considered a good place to attempt 
the "Jamaica" option of a CDU (black)-FDP (yellow)-Greens alliance 
because the Saar CDU and FDPs are both to the left of their federal 
parties.  The parties have time to wait; under the Saar constitution 
the parliament has three months to pick a new government after it 
convenes on September 23.  Either choice will be historic but both 
will be difficult for the Saar Greens, with its membership severely 
split between those who would find it odious to support the 
re-election of Mueller and those who just as vehemently distrust 
Left Party leader and former Saarland Minister-President Oskar 
Lafontaine.  Many see him as the man pulling the strings in a party 
that is a relic of old thinking on key issues such as energy, social 
policy, and child care. 
 
ALFORD