Coalition in Berlin | Coalition negotiations: Defending hope

Moment of relaxation: Kerstin Wolter (l.), Left Party leader in Berlin, and top candidate Elif Eralp during the state party conference, which cleared the way for coalition negotiations Photo: dpa/Sebastian Christoph Gollnow For years, elections in Germany have tended to end the same way: the democratic parties suffer massive losses, and with difficulty it is enough for a coalition between parties that actually do not want to govern with each other and cannot agree on anything groundbreaking. With even more effort and even more hardship, this coalition will last until the next election. The AfD, on the other hand, is gaining ground from election evening to election evening. And commentators and politicians regularly ask after the election: How could this happen?

Both the bourgeois parties and the extreme right are responding to a crisis of political representation that is linked to a fundamental crisis of social order. The bourgeois parties stand for the promise of a supposed return to normality; for a market economy, intergenerational justice and cohesion, at least for those who are not refugees, poor or queer. But fewer and fewer people believe this promise because they find it dissonant with the actual experiences of isolation and the loss of social security.

Sebastian Wehrhahn studied philosophy and is a speaker for the Left in the Bundestag for anti-fascism. For “nd” he writes regularly about old, middle-aged and new Nazis as well as anti-fascist politics.

The extreme right, on the other hand, resolves this dissonance by, on the one hand, throwing the false promises of equality and justice overboard and making the brutality of neoliberalism their program, and on the other hand, offering a protective space against this, namely the national community.

The center-left alliance is the only immediate democratic and humane alternative to resolving this contradiction because, for example, it shifts the horizon of possibility for parliamentary politics through the socialization of living space. An ecological socialist perspective would also make it at least conceivable to change the social conditions under which uncertainty is experienced.

It was clear to everyone involved that such an undertaking would result in serious attacks. And it is also somewhat obvious that it is not about the safety of Jewish people when conservatives crash against a possible red-green-red government in Berlin, but about the delegitimization of this alliance in favor of a conservative government. However, the vehemence and audacity with which people who are not offended by calling Jews foreigners, defunding projects against anti-Semitism and distributing funds against anti-Semitism according to party-political interests without professional scrutiny are now trying to prevent a center-left government with the argument of anti-Semitism, of all things, is still surprising.

Less surprising, but still disappointing, is the opportunistic silence of all those who are familiar enough with anti-Semitism and therefore know how shortened the current debate is and what a relieving function it has for conservatives and the majority of society. They know how instrumental it is to deal with Jewish fears, and what it is called according to the IHRA definition when the Junge Union shows a banner on stage at the “Germany Day” with the slogan “Never again is now” next to a campaign sticker by Elif Eralp: Holocaust-relative anti-Semitism.

In his famous speech "The War and the Future" from 1943, Thomas Mann not only called anti-communism the "fundamental folly of our era", he also pointed out in a subordinate clause a function of anti-communism that continues to be relevant. It says that fascism “lived for so long on the terror of the bourgeois world at the word communism (…).” Research on historical fascism has always pointed to the importance of this horror, especially with regard to the alliances with which the fascists came to power.

In the attacks on Die Linke and a red-green-red alliance in Berlin, conservatives and right-wing extremists are coming closer because they have a common opponent. The fact that Elif Eralp is not only a democratic socialist, but also the daughter of refugees and a woman seems to strengthen this rapprochement, because racism and patriarchy also create common ground. This rapprochement is part of the far right's grip on power, and it does not contradict the AfD's stated goal of destroying the Union when it no longer needs it.

There is a lot at stake in the coalition talks that are now beginning. There is no need for the illusion that revolutionary achievements will be achieved in left-wing government participation. A mayor of Eralp will not be able to organize the production and distribution of wealth fundamentally differently, a center-left government in Berlin will not solve the climate crisis for the benefit of people and nature, and deportations will not be abolished either.

But a successful red-green-red alliance would be proof that other election outcomes are possible, that hope for left-wing change is justified, that it is worth fighting for and that we are not on the eve of fascism because, unlike the next morning, fascism can be stopped.

Other media have corporations or billionaires behind them. We have the nd.Genossenschaft and readers like you. That makes us independent and that’s exactly how we want to remain. But it also means: without you the calculation won't work. We need 300,000 euros by the end of the year.

You can donate directly here, one-time or regularly, so that nd stays.