Germany's plan for education: Support academic freedom, enhance R&I and invest in infrastructures

"Our demand is clear: Germany needs stability and renewal - for a secure future, economic strength and social cohesion", states the document concluding the preliminary discussions to form a coalition government in Germany, published by the leaders of the CDU/CSU and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) on 08/03/2025.

Titled 'Sondierungspapier' (Exploratory paper in English), the document presents the broad outlines of the future government programme, less than two weeks after the federal election on 23/02/2025, which saw the CDU/CSU win 208 seats, the AfD (far-right) win 152 seats, and the SPD win 120 seats in the Bundestag, which contains 630 seats.

The SPD led Germany from 2021 to 2025, with Olaf Scholz as Chancellor, but the party lost 86 seats from the 2021 election. The AfD, headed by Alice Weidel, went up 69 seats since 2021, while the CDU/CSU went up eleven.

The 2025 preliminary document is shorter than its predecessor on themes like the ecological transition and international policy, but immigration has made a stronger entrance than in 2021. The document is made up of five main…