Berlin: SPD and Greens decide on left-wing alliance – 20 SPD MPs object

Berlin's Greens and SPD decide on Monday whether to open coalition negotiations with the Left Party (Die Linke). The Greens have called a small party conference for 8 pm, while the SPD state executive meets online. The basis is the exploratory paper the three parties presented at the weekend. Because of the autumn school holidays, the Left will only decide at a party conference on 31 October; if approved, talks could begin in early November.

What is new is resistance from the Bundestag: according to Spiegel, Bild and Table.Briefings, 20 SPD members of parliament signed a statement titled "Unser Wertekompass ist niemals verhandelbar" ("Our moral compass is never negotiable"). They come out "emphatically" against coalition talks with Berlin's Left and voice "considerable doubt" about its political reliability, citing recurring antisemitism disputes and, in their account, contacts to a criminal clan milieu and extremist circles. SPD parliamentary leader Matthias Miersch confirmed on ARD's "Caren Miosga" that 20 MPs had voiced criticism.

The most contested plan is to socialise around 160,000 flats owned by five companies, with compensation capped at 16 billion euros. Miersch rejected it, speaking of "crazy compensation sums". In the 20 September election the Left won 25.7 percent, ahead of the CDU (18.8), AfD (16.3), Greens (14.3) and SPD (12.1).