Following Sunday’s elections, the greens and liberals are seen as kingmakers for the coming German government. Together they can decide whether to support a traffic light coalition with the Social Democrats, or a ‘Jamaica’ coalition with the Christian Democrats. While these two parties have many differences between them, e.g. on public spending, tax cuts and climate change, they do seem to agree on the need for Germany to catch up in terms of digitalization.Germany is lagging behind the rest of Europe in terms of broadband connections, the use of digital services and digitalization of its industry and government. Fixing this situation, through public investments and more favorable regulations, should a be top priority for the new government. The greens and liberals could use such a plan to divert some attention away from issues that are politically more sensitive.As citizens are still weary of information technology in general and e-government especially, cultural change should also be part of the ambition. From that perspective, it would be promising for the digital future of Germany if the deeply conservative CDU is left out of the coalition.
