Berlin election | Left Party Conference: Surprising unanimity

Now it's decided. Negotiations are now underway. Eli Eralp (with flowers) at the special party conference Photo: Imago/Chris Emil Janßen Clear the way for coalition negotiations: With a large majority, the state party conference of the Berlin Left decided on Saturday to initiate coalition negotiations with the Greens and the SPD. Only around 15 of the 152 delegates voted against a corresponding resolution from the state executive board. The Greens and the SPD had already voted in favor of coalition negotiations shortly after the conclusion of the explorations two weeks ago.

The party leadership had campaigned for the government alliance before the vote. “160,000 apartments can be removed from the profit logic,” said state chairman Maximilian Schirmer, referring to the exploratory paper. The desired socialization is a “project of the century”. Schirmer referred to a list of negotiation successes. The Red-Green-Red party wants to enforce a rent cap for state-owned apartments and place private landlords under strict supervision. “We set limits on the real estate industry,” says Schirmer.

Top candidate Elif Eralp, who has now come a lot closer to her goal of becoming governing mayor, promised "an affordable Berlin in which everyone can live in dignity." She said: "We will write history together." Eralp particularly highlighted passages in the exploratory paper that relate to integration and anti-discrimination - an indication that the topic could be of particular importance in her Senate Chancellery. The Left, the Greens and the SPD had promised in the exploratory paper that they wanted to make as much use as possible of the state's options for state reception programs and protection against deportations.

Protest against the exploratory results was mainly limited to the Solid youth association. "We are repeating the mistakes of the PDS in 2002," said representative Chiara Stenger. A policy change is not possible with the “pro-capitalist” parties Greens and SPD. Stenger criticized that the agreements on socialization were vague and non-binding. That “doesn’t even come close to meeting the demands of socialist politics.” In addition to the delegates from the Left Youth, only a few delegates followed this view.

It was not certain in advance that the state party conference would send such a clear signal for the coalition negotiations. Delegates had submitted numerous motions that had the potential to blow up the negotiations with the Greens and the SPD. Several motions called for the declaration on anti-Semitism to be withdrawn or restricted in key parts. Other applicants called for compromises on finances or domestic policy found in the explorations to be revised.

In the past, the state executive committee had pacified such conflicts by finding compromises. The applicant and the board sat down together and wrote long texts that were intended to satisfy all wings. This happened at the state party conference in November 2025, when an extremely complicated compromise on the Middle East was negotiated.

This time the party leadership chose a different path. At the beginning of the application discussion, it was announced that the controversial applications would be referred to the state committee. The party leadership can be sure of a majority there - and above all, the committee does not meet in public. The left is aware that many media outlets are just waiting for provocations from the pro-Palestinian wing. This avoidance tactic is otherwise familiar from SPD party conferences. Despite the protests of a few delegates, the party congress still approved the procedure.

This left only a small number of applications that were even discussed. The Middle East bone of contention was only found in an application from the Steglitz-Zehlendorf district association. "The Left Berlin criticizes the agreement reached on October 8, 2026 between the SPD, the Greens and our party to start the explorations and continues to rely on the use of the JDA as a reference for the definition of anti-Semitism," it says. The exploratory paper indirectly referred to the International Holocaust Remembrance Association (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism, which is less narrow than the Jerusalem Declaration on Anti-Semitism (JDA) mentioned.

“The IHRA definition invites us to describe any criticism of Israel as anti-Semitism,” said one speaker, explaining the demand. In contrast, state chairwoman Kerstin Wolter put forward an argument that few in the room wanted to contradict: "If we decide this way, there will be no coalition negotiations." The Greens and the SPD had made it a condition for coalition negotiations that the declaration be included in a coalition agreement. It is no surprise that the application was rejected by a clear majority.

In front of the Dong Xuan House in the Lichtenberg district, where the party met, there was a different picture. An alliance of pro-Palestinian groups called for protest. “Elif Reason of State Eralp” could be read on one poster, “Elif Eralp = New Cem Özdemir” on another. Among the approximately 70 demonstration participants was Ramsis Kilani, who was expelled from the left two years ago because of anti-Israel statements.

And there was another surprise guest at this demonstration. MP Vanessa Emde (Left) gave a short speech - just in time for the lunch break of the state party conference, when numerous journalists left the conference hall. She complained about "the criminalization and demonization of Palestine solidarity" and accused the left-wing national leadership of "complicity with genocidal people."

Apparently the voting weight of the opponents of Israel was significantly overestimated - by the party leadership and by the public.

In the weeks before the party conference, Emde almost single-handedly ruined the formation of a government. The SPD and the Greens interrupted the explorations for a day after Emde was accepted into the left-wing faction in the House of Representatives. Emde had questioned whether Israel had a right to exist. The left-wing parliamentary group's executive board had repeatedly declared that it no longer saw a common working basis with Emde. However, an application for exclusion was not made, probably in order to prevent unrest within the party before the party conference.

But obviously the voting weight of the opponents of Israel was significantly overestimated - by the party leadership and by the public. However, the delegates to the party conference were determined two years ago and thus before the big wave of entry. The mixed situation at the grassroots level will become apparent in the ballot, which will decide on the coalition agreement that has yet to be negotiated. The Greens and SPD also want their members to vote on it. A result of the negotiations is expected in December.

The path to coalition negotiations, which had already been believed to be safe, had recently suffered a setback. The news magazine “Spiegel” had published Eralp’s comments in a Word document that Eralp’s spokesman had accidentally sent along when authorizing an interview. In it, Eralp asked to delete a question about the pro-Palestinian activist Ibrahim Ibrahim. The LKA advised her not to mention any specific names of terrorist sympathizers, Eralp wrote. "I'm not putting my family's safety at risk for Spiegel," she noted alongside the interviewer's question. The conclusion drawn by the news magazine: Eralp would allow himself to be intimidated. “Can someone like that be responsible for security in the capital?” asked Der Spiegel.

The activist Ibrahim Ibrahim has been a red flag for the Left Party since the election evening on September 20th. He showed up unexpectedly at the Neukölln district association's election celebration and had his photo taken with Bundestag member Ferat Kocak and the newly elected Vanessa Emde. In 2019, Ibrahim described himself as a “sympathizer” of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (according to the English acronym PFLP). On the PFLP's Arabic-language website he is described as its representative in Germany. The PFLP is blamed for numerous attacks in Israel.

For the CDU, Eralp's fear of Ibrahim was a hit. The Greens and the SPD must pull the “emergency brake,” demanded Thorsten Frei, managing director of the Union parliamentary group in the Bundestag. The former governing mayor Michael Müller (SPD) found Eralp to be “open to blackmail”. The “Tagesspiegel” saw the coalition negotiations “under enormous pressure.”

Within the party, however, the attempted character assassination of Eralp seems to have helped Eralp. When she brought up the topic in her speech, the loudest applause of the day erupted. “It goes without saying that I care about my family,” she says. She knows that she has to weigh every word. "But that doesn't mean I won't take part in the debate."

“I will not allow myself to be intimidated,” she shouted into the hall. Eralp promised that she would take action against organized crime and the glorification of violence, "no matter where it comes from." The state chairman Maximilian Schirmer had already spoken of a journalistic “border crossing”.

At the demonstration in front of the hall in solidarity with Palestine, there was little empathy for such concerns. “Anti-Germans” – i.e. pro-Israel leftists – expressed their solidarity with Elif Eralp, a speaker reported. "They write that they are also afraid of the mob." The demonstrators responded with cheers.

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