Berlin: Left Party, Greens and SPD resume exploratory coalition talks
After a two-day pause over a declaration on antisemitism, the three parties return to the table on Thursday. A Left Party convention on Oct. 31 will be decisive.
Symbolic image · Photo: Abghs / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
The Left Party, the Greens and the Social Democrats in Berlin are resuming exploratory talks on forming a state government on Thursday, Oct. 15. The Greens and the SPD had suspended the talks on Tuesday evening after the new Left Party caucus adopted its own declaration against antisemitism. According to the two parties, the text deviated from a joint agreement reached earlier. Left Party caucus leader Elif Eralp said the misunderstandings between the parties had been cleared up. “From tomorrow we will continue to meet,” she said on Wednesday.
The joint “Berlin Declaration” is to be included in any coalition agreement. It provides for consequences for antisemitic incidents involving caucus members, up to expulsion, with the caucus concerned deciding. According to state SPD leader Steffen Krach, the paper also calls for strengthening the police and the domestic intelligence agency. Greens caucus leader Bettina Jarasch called the suspension “a bang” and said all three partners must stand “100 percent” behind the agreed declaration.
Whether formal coalition negotiations follow will be decided by a Left Party convention on Oct. 31. Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) had on Monday called for the talks to be abandoned, and Berlin's CDU offered itself as an alternative. “Our hand is outstretched, our door is open,” said lead candidate Stefan Evers. Left Party co-leader Luigi Pantisano suggested Krach might be bowing to “pressure from the chancellery.” The Greens' Mitte district branch, however, wants other coalition options to be seriously examined.