Parliament | Left and CDU arm in arm

The previous President of the House of Representatives Cornelia Seibeld (l.) hugs the new President Hendrikje Klein. Photo: dpa/Britta Pedersen After the Second World War, Berlin was divided into East and West, and from 1961 a wall separated the city. She fell in 1989. But in the next five years there will be a clearly visible line in the Berlin House of Representatives - between passionate struggle for majorities and deliberate damage to democratic culture. This is what Hendrikje Klein (Left Party), who was elected as the new Speaker of Parliament on Thursday, wants.

Klein also wants to draw clear boundaries against any form of anti-Semitism, racism and misanthropy and will not tolerate the degradation and disrespect of women through heckling, she announced. Her office obliges her to be non-partisan, but not to be indifferent.

The Left won the election on September 20th with a sensational 25.7 percent. Therefore, she can be the President of the House of Representatives. Hendrikje Klein received 98 yes and 42 no votes with 9 abstentions out of 149 votes cast. A coalition of the Left, the Greens and the SPD is emerging. Since these three parties together only have 91 votes in the House of Representatives and not all of their representatives were present, Klein must also have received a few votes from the other factions. “For me, 98 votes are an expression of trust and support,” she said.

Klein was born and grew up in Berlin-Marzahn, in the district newly founded in 1979, in which the typical GDR new building blocks are the dominant element. When the wall came down she was nine years old. She was certainly born with a lot of things, but probably not the desire to become President of Parliament in the reunified capital of Germany, says Klein. She sees the fact that she has now become one as a woman from the East and as a leftist as an expression of normality and a sign of the growing together of East and West.

Berlin is still facing major challenges today. The 2021 referendum, which called for the socialization of large private portfolios of more than 3,000 apartments, is still waiting to be implemented, recalled Klein.

Kai Wegner (CDU) had been the Governing Mayor of Berlin since 2023 and was based on a coalition with the SPD. The CDU and SPD no longer have a majority in the House of Representatives. The SPD and the Greens have already decided on coalition negotiations with the Left. The Left still has to agree to a special party conference next Saturday. Then the negotiations could start. In preliminary discussions, the three parties have already agreed that private housing stocks of over 10,000 apartments should be socialized.

»For me, 98 votes are an expression of trust and support.«

If the negotiated coalition agreement receives the blessing of the members of all three regional associations, Elif Eralp (Left) could probably be elected Governing Mayor at the beginning of 2027. However, a faux pas when releasing an interview with the news magazine “Der Spiegel” has sowed doubts as to whether she is the right person for this position. Inadvertently, the editorial team did not receive the desired version of the interview by email from the party, but rather a version with comments from Elif Eralp and her spokesman, which were only intended for internal communication before release.

The "Spiegel" now published what was not intended for publication: that Eralp wanted to delete the journalists' question with one of her answers, which is actually excluded. The reason that emerges from the internal notes: She and her husband are afraid of Palestinian Hamas sympathizers. “I cannot put myself and my family in danger for Spiegel,” Eralp wrote, according to Spiegel. She cited the State Criminal Police Office, which recommends never mentioning specific names. "What do we do now? Cancel the whole interview?”

It was about a passage in the interview in which Eralp expressed concerns about Ibrahim Ibrahim, who appeared at the Left's election party and who is said to have connections to Hamas, which he denied. The “Spiegel” believes it is necessary to make this public. Because: “This clearly captures how the woman who wants to rule Berlin really feels in this city: no longer safe. She is afraid of people with whom some of her party friends maintain close contact." The question arises: "Can a woman who is too afraid to confirm the name of a terrorist sympathizer in an interview be responsible for the safety of all Berliners?"

Stephan Weh, state chairman of the police union, was not at a loss for an answer: "Anyone who is unable to set clear directions within the party cannot govern the German capital." Weh had previously given the impression that the police would leave Berlin in droves if Eralp became the governing mayor. This was reminiscent of dark prophecies before the election of left-wing Democrat Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York in 2025. But there was by no means a mass exodus of police officers there.

In contrast, the Left state chairman Maximilian Schirmer explained: "Anyone who cares about themselves or their family doesn't have to be ashamed of it."

On Thursday, the constituent session of the House of Representatives began as if the CDU had not been stirring up sentiment against the Left Party for weeks and months. The previous President of the House of Representatives Cornelia Seibeld (CDU) congratulated her successor Hendrikje Klein and hugged her. Klein, in turn, praised Seibeld for how carefully she had led the meetings of the House of Representatives in recent years. That's not the end of it. Because with 109 votes, Seibeld was now elected Deputy President of the House of Representatives – and was embraced by Elif Eralp.

As the third-largest faction, the AfD is also entitled to a vice president. But the AfD proposed its MP Martin Trefzer, and he failed with just 40 votes. Trefzer would have needed 77 votes. The AfD faction has 29 members. The election of a second vice president was postponed for the time being.

Now 78 years old, Kurt Wansner (CDU) opened the constituent session of the House of Representatives that morning for the third time as senior president. That makes him proud - as someone who was born in Berlin and has personally experienced the political upheavals and the eventful history of the city over the decades, said Wansner. In Berlin, everyone is allowed to live their faith, but not to force it on their neighbors, warned the senior president.

He is concerned about the voter turnout of 74.2 percent. That is significantly more than the 62.9 percent in the election in February 2023. But that is not enough for Wansner. Around 614,000 people did not exercise their right to vote. That's more people than Duisburg's population. As Wanser wants to know from discussions with citizens, the reason for the reluctance is not political disinterest, but rather disappointment and resignation. The MPs have to go into the neighborhoods and show the citizens that their opinions are wanted, demanded Wansner.

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