The Berlin CDU sends invitations to exploratory talks to the Social Democrats and the Greens. The SPD state executive is open to negotiations with the Union. However, if he returns to government, he has other favorites, says Chairwoman Giffey. She herself apparently has sympathies for a grand coalition.
According to the chairwoman Franziska Giffey, after the repeat election in Berlin, the SPD state executive is more inclined to continue the red-green-red coalition than to a black-red alliance. “I would say that there is already a clear trend for the continuation, but of course it is also taken very seriously that we have an election winner here that is clearly ahead of us,” said Giffey after a board meeting.
Giffey herself does not appear to be clinging to the post of governing mayor. According to information from the “Tagesspiegel” she was open to a grand coalition with the CDU at the board meeting. The previous alliance is no longer “perceived as a joint project,” she is said to have raised concerns. Even out of “respect for the election result” one cannot automatically enter into negotiations with the Greens and the Left, Giffey said according to the “Tagesspiegel”. As far as cooperation with the Union is concerned, the social democrat already has experience: from 2018 to 2021 she was Federal Minister for Family Affairs in Angela Merkel’s cabinet.
When the parliamentary elections were repeated on Sunday, the CDU was by far the strongest party in the capital with 28.2 percent. SPD and Greens each achieved around 18.4 percent. The SPD came in second with a lead of just 105 votes. So far, Giffey has ruled in Berlin in an alliance with the Greens and the Left. “We have agreed that we are going into exploratory talks with the CDU, but also with our coalition partners,” said Giffey.
She and co-head of state Raed Saleh were given the mandate by the state board to conduct these negotiations. “My party gave me backing on the federal executive board today, and the state executive board did the same,” said Giffey on the question of a possible resignation. “If the party disagrees, then I made it clear today that I’m not sticking to my office,” she said. “But the order that both the federal executive board and the state executive board has given is different.”
The Berlin CDU meanwhile wants to hold exploratory talks with the SPD and the Greens. The presidium of the CDU state association spoke out in favor of this in the afternoon, as a spokesman said. The board passed the resolution unanimously. The corresponding invitations to the two parties had been sent. It is not yet clear when the talks will take place. At the meeting of the state executive committee, top candidate Kai Wegner was also unanimously proposed as parliamentary group leader and Cornelia Seibeld as president of the House of Representatives. She was previously Vice-President of the state parliament.
