Complex sentence: The vote was not as tricky, technically, as the earlier one since it was clear this time that the FDP wanted to switch over to a coalition with the CDU and was already in negotiations at the time the vote happened.
Split into simpler sentences: The vote was not as tricky technically as the earlier one, since it was clear this time that the FDP wanted to switch over to a coalition with the CDU. Indeed, the FDP was already in negotiations at the time the vote happened.