After the decision of the SPD to form a coalition with the CDU in Berlin, the previous partner Die Linke reacted angrily. “We can now also be angry,” says the state chairman Schubert and makes a possibly momentous announcement.
The CDU and SPD want to start their coalition talks for a new Berlin state government next week. However, the criticism of the planned alliance and the SPD’s departure from the coalition with the Left and Greens does not stop. The left was deeply annoyed at a party conference in the evening and announced that it would no longer negotiate with SPD state leader and previous governing mayor Franziska Giffey – even if black and red shouldn’t work.
“We can now be angry too,” said Linke state chairwoman Katina Schubert. That Giffey wanted to hold coalition talks with the CDU state chairman Kai Wegner – “to be honest, that’s shameful”. She spoke to the RBB of “impudence”. At the party conference, Schubert called “denunciations” that the governing mayor had given her previous partners, the Left and the Greens, joint responsibility for the end of the red-green-red coalition. These were “stunk and lied”. The left is now adjusting to its role in the opposition, but is aiming for a comeback. “We are the Berlin left and we will be back,” said Schubert.
The state chairmen of the Greens, Susanne Mertens and Philmon Ghirmai, accused the Giffey SPD of not being ready for an urgently needed awakening and for partnership in the coalition. Exactly what we warned about during the election campaign is coming: a coalition of regression.
Among the Social Democrats, approval for talks about the black-red government is by no means unanimous: “We have members who are now very strongly opposed to such an alliance and are also very loud,” said Giffey. “But there is also a lot of feedback from the party saying that this is a right and a courageous step.”
Giffey expects a broad majority in the announced membership decision on a coalition agreement with the CDU. There was a very honest debate on the start of coalition negotiations in the state executive board, Giffey said. “Two-thirds voted to start coalition negotiations with the CDU.” She also assesses the mood in the entire party in the same way.
Among other things, the SPD youth organization Jusos had announced that they would mobilize against a black-red two-party alliance. There are also critical voices in the CDU. “I am expressly promoting a progressive coalition between the CDU and the Greens,” said CDU economics expert Christian Gräff to the “Tagesspiegel”. “The Berlin SPD must renew itself in the opposition. For the time being, it is not capable of governing in Berlin.”
The CDU federal chairman Friedrich Merz, on the other hand, supports the decision of the Berlin CDU: “The CDU won the elections in Berlin by a large margin before the SPD and the Greens,” he said in the “ntv Frühstart”. “And now the local authorities have to find a way to come together to form a sensible government,” said Merz. “And if that is the decision of the CDU in Berlin to start coalition talks with the SPD now, then I agree with that.”
The CDU won the repeat election in mid-February with 28.2 percent. SPD and Greens both got 18.4 percent each. With 53 votes, the Social Democrats only have a wafer-thin lead over the Greens. The left came to 12.2 percent, the AfD to 9.1. The FDP is no longer in the state parliament.
