Berlin Left Party meets; Eralp expects big majority for coalition talks
Just before the party congress in Lichtenberg, election winner Elif Eralp said she was confident the Left would back talks with the Greens and SPD. She is under police protection, and a protest is planned outside.
Archive image · Photo: Sandro Halank, Wikimedia Commons / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
Berlin's Left Party was deciding Saturday at a state congress in the Lichtenberg district whether to open coalition talks with the Greens and the Social Democrats. Lead candidate Elif Eralp, whose party won the state election six weeks ago, said she expected broad support. "I believe the party will stand behind me with a very, very large majority," she told RBB Inforadio shortly before the meeting began. The Greens and the SPD have already agreed to negotiate.
Eralp said she did not feel personally threatened but complained of a "very, very poisoned debate" about her, marked by hatred, insults and threats. She is receiving police protection on Saturday, according to security sources, following a Spiegel report that she feared for her family's safety if she spoke out explicitly about a well-known Palestinian activist, and because of announced protests. She declined to give details of the threat assessment, saying she trusted the authorities' judgment.
Left-wing opponents of joining a government have announced a rally outside the venue. A debate over how the party handles antisemitism has weighed on the talks. The timing of the delegates' vote was not immediately known. If they approve, negotiations on a so-called red-green-red alliance could begin soon.