Traffic light coalition

So far, the only instance of a traffic light coalition on a federal level in Germany has been in Olaf Scholz' cabinet between 2021 and its collapse over disagreements in November 2024.

[7][8] Despite the common ground on cultural liberalism between the three parties, the FDP's economic liberalism and long association at the federal level with the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) traditionally made such a coalition problematic,[9] with former FDP chairman Guido Westerwelle explicitly ruling out this option for the 2009 federal election.

[11] Following the 2021 federal election, the SPD emerged as the largest party in the Bundestag, with 25.7%, but did not have enough seats either to govern outright or together with the third place 14.7% Greens.

However, following the 2001 Australian Capital Territory election, Labor formed a minority government supported by the Greens and the Democrats, the closest thing to a "traffic light" coalition ever experienced.

In the 2010s, the term reemerged to describe a theoretical coalition of the SPÖ, Greens, and NEOS – The New Austria, the latter of which is the successor to the Liberal Forum.

[22] As a result of the 2024 parliamentary election, the traffic light government formula between PSD, PNL and UMDR returned, this time under the Second Ciolacu Cabinet.