Overview

• The CDU/CSU and SPD have signed their coalition agreement in Berlin, solidifying their government partnership with a slim 13-vote majority in the Bundestag.
• Friedrich Merz is expected to be elected Chancellor tomorrow, with SPD leader Lars Klingbeil serving as Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister.
• The SPD announced its ministerial lineup, emphasizing generational change, gender parity, and Eastern-German representation, with Boris Pistorius confirmed as Defense Minister and Baerbel Bas as Labor Minister.
• The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution officially classified the far-right AfD as an extremist party, prompting the party to file a legal appeal.
• The classification has reignited national debate over the potential banning of AfD, a test of Germany's democratic safeguards under post-war law.