The Left in Berlin: From the hustle and bustle into the coalition?

The Left in Berlin From the hustle and bustle into the coalition? As of: October 31, 2026 • 8:43 a.m

The Berlin Left will decide today whether to start coalition negotiations with the SPD and the Greens. The party conference is overshadowed by allegations of anti-Semitism and a Spiegel report.

Is Berlin's future mayor personally afraid of terrorist sympathizers? This is what internal comments suggest, accidentally sent to Der Spiegel, which published it on Thursday.

Elif Eralp then promised Berliners what was actually self-evident, namely to take decisive action "against organized crime, against organizations that glorify violence, terror." If she becomes governing mayor.

The formation of a government in Berlin is once again overshadowed by a debate about the Left Party. more

Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) would like to prevent that. For him, the Left in Berlin are left-wing radicals with whom the SPD and the Greens should not govern.

Merz recently said at the Junge Union: "This is not permitted - to protect our democracy. Stop initiating what you are doing in Berlin."

The broad reporting on anti-Semitism in the Berlin Left - and especially in the Neukölln district association - has long since reached the party headquarters.

"In fact, as a federal party we are also in very close contact with the Neukölln district association and of course also with the state party," says Left Party leader Ines Schwerdtner, because whether it's about incidents like a left-wing election party with a Hamas sympathizer, or about people like the MP who still doesn't clearly recognize the State of Israel's right to exist: "We have to look to the future, how do we deal with it?"

We want to continue to show solidarity with Palestine, says Schwerdtner, but in a way that does not undermine the cause. "I think the worst thing about it is that you are delegitimizing legitimate Palestinian solidarity by allowing these border crossings."

The Berlin political scientist Gero Neugebauer has been observing the Left since its founding. Dealing with the Berlin comrades as a whole is not easy today, says Neugebauer. The regional association must somehow be integrated into the overall association - without giving up its own identity.

The left could provide the governing mayor. But there is criticism of anti-Semitic tendencies. more

Ask the only left-wing politician who has ever ruled a federal state: Bodo Ramelow, who was Prime Minister of Thuringia for ten years after 2014. In Berlin, should top candidate Elif Eralp aim for the second left-wing state government in German history despite the strong political headwind? "Absolutely. What Elif Eralp has already achieved is far more than what I expected back then."

In particular, says today's Bundestag Vice President Ramelow, the Left in the capital has brought social issues such as affordable rents into the public debate. The planned socialization of apartments in Berlin is to be agreed upon in a joint coalition agreement with the SPD and the Greens - against the determined resistance of the Union. The federal government wants its own law against Berlin's housing socialization.

The federal government wants to forestall the Left Party in Berlin with a law. more

In addition to great political resistance from outside, there was also considerable protest within the party against moving into the Red City Hall with too many compromises. Are these forces asserting themselves in the party?

Ramelow believes: "Those times are over. This debate about non-government is an absolute minority position. The coalition agreement will be put into effect through a ballot. I have full confidence in the over 20,000 members."

But first, the start of coalition negotiations must be decided: at today's Berlin Left Party Conference.

"Very much applause for your campaign for a coalition agreement", Andreas König, RBB, at the party conference of the Berlin Left tagesschau24, October 31, 2026 • 11:00 a.m. The Left Berlin Party Conference Anti-Semitism This topic in the program: BR24 Radio | News | Oct 29, 2026 | 4:33 p.m