Status: 03/01/2023 9:12 p.m
Black and red in Berlin has become more likely: the SPD state executive clearly voted for coalition negotiations with the CDU. They, in turn, should agree tomorrow. But the Social Democrats are resisting.
The SPD in Berlin wants to start coalition negotiations with the election winner, the CDU. Board member Kevin Hönicke announced this on Twitter in the evening. The SPD state executive decided this with 25 votes to twelve.
The governing mayor and SPD state leader Franziska Giffey had previously spoken out in favor of such an alliance. She would no longer be head of government if the alliance were to come about.
In the SPD, however, there are also many voices against an alliance with the CDU. The Jusos, in particular, firmly reject a coalition with the CDU. “The CDU does not fit in with Berlin and not with the SPD,” said Berlin co-chairman Sinem Taşan-Funke of the dpa news agency: “We will oppose any attempt to form a coalition with the CDU.”
Wegner could become prime minister instead of Giffey
Berlin’s CDU leader Kai Wegner is also apparently in favor of a coalition with the SPD. According to rbb information, he wants to recommend appropriate negotiations to his state board tomorrow. His approval is loud ARD correspondent Esther Neumeier secure.
In this case, the new governing mayor would be Wegner. The CDU last provided a head of government in Berlin with Eberhard Diepgen, who was in office from 1984 to 1989 and from 1991 to 2001.
Greens warn of “regression coalition”
The alternative would be to continue the coalition with the Greens and Left, with which the SPD has governed since 2016. The tripartite alliance would also have a majority in the new House of Representatives.
The green top candidate in the repeat election, Bettina Jarasch, criticized a possible black-red alliance: “The fact that the SPD and the CDU are now obviously deciding for each other shows that what we always warned about in the election campaign is coming: a regression coalition.” The Greens stand by their responsibility for Berlin and have made this clear in “the exploratory talks, which have been conducted seriously in each case”.
Since February 17, the parties have been exploring in exploratory talks whether there is a common basis for coalition negotiations and for forming a government. The CDU spoke three times each with the SPD and the Greens. SPD, Greens and Left also met three times.