German coalition agrees on Covid assistance measures, election reform

Berlin

After eight hours of tough talks in Berlin, leaders of the three parties in Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition agreed on measures to ease the economic bite of the coronavirus pandemic and made a start on long-debated election reforms.

The central point of the package, hammered out Tuesday by leaders of Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), its Bavarian sister party Christian Social Union (CSU) and the Social Democrats (SPD), is an extension of the short-term work allowance, which is designed to help people keep their jobs in the pandemic.

The short-term work allowance payments are to be extended from 12 months currently to up to 24 months, in some cases running until December 31 next year. The coalition wants to make tax funds available so that the Federal Employment Agency (BA) can shoulder the billions in ensuing costs.