Berlin left-wing alliance: Greens leader Graf expects approval as business sounds alarm
Ahead of a Greens party meeting tonight, parliamentary leader Werner Graf said he is confident of a majority. Business group VBKI warned of 'serious damage' to Berlin; culture minister Weimer criticized the Left.
Archive image · Photo: Abghs / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
Hours before Berlin's Greens and Social Democrats decide whether to open coalition talks with the Left Party, Greens parliamentary leader Werner Graf said he expected approval. "I firmly expect that we will get a majority to take up these talks," he told RBB Inforadio, adding he would campaign for a yes at a small party convention at 8 p.m. The SPD's state executive is to decide in an online meeting. The Left Party votes only on Oct. 31, meaning formal talks could start in early November.
Business leaders pushed back. Harald Christ, president of the Association of Berlin Merchants and Industrialists (VBKI), said the group's worst fears had been confirmed, according to Der Tagesspiegel. "The SPD and the Greens are extending a hand to the Left for a course that could do Berlin serious economic damage," he said. He criticized announced tax and fee increases of at least 400 million euros a year, and the VBKI also rejects plans to socialize about 160,000 apartments owned by large housing companies.
Criticism from the federal government and the conservative bloc also continued. Independent federal culture commissioner Wolfram Weimer again warned in Bild against a coalition with the Left Party, saying it would open the door wide to antisemitism. CDU lawmaker Günter Krings said a plan in the exploratory paper to give foreign residents the vote would be unconstitutional. Earlier, 20 SPD members of the Bundestag had come out against talks with Berlin's Left Party.