Four weeks after the election to the Berlin House of Representatives, the Left, Greens and SPD have successfully concluded their exploratory talks on forming a government. The party bodies will now be proposed to open coalition negotiations, the news agency dpa learned from circles of all three parties involved. On Saturday, 17 October, the three parties intend to give a joint press statement at 17.00 at the Haus der Statistik in Berlin-Mitte and, according to dpa information, to inform about the exploratory paper and the next steps.
Before coalition talks can begin, the bodies must give the green light. The Greens intend to decide on this at a small party conference this Monday. In the SPD, the state executive is likely to decide on the basis of the exploratory paper; a date was initially not named. The Left has – because of the two-week autumn holidays in Berlin – scheduled a party conference only for 31 October, which is to decide on opening coalition negotiations. If all three parties agree, the negotiations could start at the beginning of November.
The talks were overshadowed by accusations of antisemitism against individual members of the Left. Before the start of the exploratory talks, the three parties had agreed on how they would deal with antisemitic incidents in the ranks of the Left in the event of a coalition; sanctions up to exclusion from the parliamentary group are being considered. The Greens and SPD had made this agreement a precondition for starting the exploratory talks, as rbb reports. The joint text on antisemitism is now to become part of the coalition agreement if it comes to that. In addition, the parliamentary group leadership of the Left dealt with the controversial Neukölln member of parliament Vanessa Emde, who on Thursday evening sharply criticised on Instagram the declaration on antisemitism that she herself had signed on Tuesday; in the view of the parliamentary group leadership, there is no longer any basis for cooperation.
In the election on 20 September, the Left became the strongest force with 25.7 per cent. Behind it follow the CDU (18.8 per cent), AfD (16.3 per cent), Greens (14.3 per cent) and – with their historically worst result – the SPD (12.1 per cent). The previously governing CDU/SPD coalition has lost its majority. The sought three-party coalition of the Left, Greens and SPD would have 91 seats in the new House of Representatives, 14 more than the absolute majority. A coalition of CDU, Greens and SPD would also be possible, but it would be only two seats above the absolute majority.
