Explorations in Berlin: SPD wants to talk to the left about forming a government

dpa | The Berlin SPD wants to talk to the Left about possible government cooperation. The state executive board had unanimously decided to accept the Left Party's invitation to exploratory talks, the Social Democrats announced on Saturday evening.

The exploratory team should include up to five people: These include the two state chairmen Bettina König and Steffen Krach as well as Derya Caglar for the parliamentary group. Depending on the topic of discussion, there would also be up to two additional members of the executive state executive committee or other party experts.

The Left was by far the strongest force in the election for the Berlin House of Representatives last Sunday with 25.7 percent. A party conference decided by a large majority to invite the Greens and the SPD to explore a possible red-green-red alliance. The Left wants to appoint its top candidate Elif Eralp as the governing mayor for the first time. The SPD only came in fifth place in the election.

Exploratory talks are not yet coalition negotiations. During the first discussions, those involved determine which points are particularly important to them and whether coalition negotiations would even be promising.

Krach emphasized before the Left Party conference that the success of the talks could not be taken for granted. “There are certainly very high hurdles,” he said. “To be honest, the last few days haven’t been exactly confidence-building.”

The Berlin Left has been criticized, among other things, for the controversial positions of parts of the party on the Middle East conflict. The party leadership had rejected allegations of anti-Semitism.

An alliance between the CDU, which slipped to second place, with the Greens and SPD would also be mathematically possible. Krach had stated that he would also speak to the CDU if they invited. After successful explorations, the Greens want to have a small party conference decide whether to enter into coalition negotiations.

Before the planned exploratory talks for a coalition of the Left, the Greens and the SPD in Berlin, the federal chair of the Green Party, Franziska Brantner, has set conditions. In an interview with the magazine “Der Spiegel,” Brantner said about a possible state government in Berlin: “Personally, I find it difficult to imagine the Left Party leading the interior or justice departments as long as there are people in the party with connections to organized crime or extremist forces such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the PFLP, or Hamas.”

Regarding demands in the Left's election program for the abolition of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and considerations regarding the police, according to which it should be "replaced or supplemented by social work wherever possible," Brantner said: "We have a clearly different position and attitude: We will not allow the Office for the Protection of the Constitution or the police to be abolished, that is not acceptable to us."

In addition, Brantner also pointed to the Left Party's decision with regard to Israel's right to exist: "Therefore, it is not too much to ask that this must be the basis for a government to declare its commitment to the State of Israel's right to exist and to name Hamas as a terrorist organization."

As the winner of the Berlin election on Friday evening, the Berlin Left decided at a party conference to invite the Greens and the SPD to exploratory talks. The aim is to check whether the prerequisites for starting coalition negotiations exist. The talks are scheduled to begin next week. First, the Left wants to speak separately with representatives of the other two parties.

Former SPD Chancellor Olaf Scholz expects concessions from the Left in the planned talks. He couldn't predict everything that would come out of it, said Scholz at a public discussion on Friday evening in Nuthetal in Brandenburg. "Whatever changes the left accepts for themselves. They will have to."

The Berlin Greens said: “We are ready to start negotiations as soon as possible.” At a first informal meeting with the left in the middle of the week, it was made clear that “clarification about anti-Semitism, racism and social cohesion” was a basic prerequisite for exploratory investigations.

The exploratory team consists of the two top candidates Werner Graf and Bettina Jarasch and the two state chairmen Nina Stahr and Philmon Ghirmai. Later, a small party conference will decide whether to enter into coalition negotiations. After the negotiations, the members vote on joining the coalition.

The CDU/CSU faction leader in the Bundestag, Thorsten Frei, warned the Greens and the SPD against government cooperation with the Left. “The Berlin Left Party maintains disturbingly close contact with Jew-haters and people from the orbit of organized crime,” Frei told the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger”.

“The SPD and the Greens must influence their state associations so that they do not fall for lure offers.” Berlin as the capital and showcase of Germany around the world must not “fall into the hands of the Left Party, which represents a blatant threat to our security.”

Since election Sunday, there has been heated discussion across the country about anti-Semitism in the Left Party and contacts in the clan milieu. The debate also sparked great skepticism among potential coalition partners the Greens and SPD. Both parties called on the left to clarify that it stands against anti-Semitism and for the protection of Jewish life.

Parts of the Berlin Left have long been criticized for their positions on Israel and Palestine and anti-Semitism. An election party for the Left in Neukölln caused a stir, at which both the head of an Arab-born and partly criminal clan and a controversial pro-Palestinian activist were present. He is said to be close to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which is classified as a terrorist organization by the EU.

The left-wing Bundestag member from Neukölln, Ferat Koçak, is under pressure because he exchanged friendly chat messages with a son of an extended family associated with the clan milieu.