Berlin: Left, Greens, SPD aim to finish talks next week
The Left party, the Greens and the SPD in Berlin say they have agreed on a "further common path" towards forming a new state government. After a second round of preliminary talks on Saturday, 3 October, the three parties said in a short joint statement that they want to bring the current talks to a result next week. According to the dpa news agency, the next meeting is planned for Wednesday. No details of what was agreed have been released, and the parties say they have agreed to keep the talks confidential.
The talks follow the Berlin state election on 20 September. The Left came first with 25.7 percent, ahead of the CDU with 18.8 percent, the AfD with 16.3 percent, the Greens with 14.3 percent and the SPD with 12.1 percent. The outgoing CDU and SPD coalition lost its majority. If a Left, Green and SPD government is formed, the Left's lead candidate Elif Eralp could become Berlin's first Governing Mayor from her party.
These are not yet formal coalition negotiations. The Greens and the SPD have made clear, binding commitments from the Left on antisemitism and organised crime a condition before exploratory talks can start. The demand follows several incidents in the Left's Neukölln branch after the election, which caused concern among the possible partners. Exploratory talks, if they begin, would set out each party's priorities and could still fail.
For people living in Berlin, nothing changes yet, because no new government has been formed. A new coalition would decide on housing, rents, public transport and city services, and the Left has campaigned on bringing large housing companies, with about 220,000 flats, into public ownership, which the SPD's lead candidate has rejected. Watch for the outcome of next week's talks to see whether formal negotiations begin.