Continuation of red-red-green
Coalition negotiations in Berlin have started
Top politicians of the Berlin SPD, Greens and Left Party in front of the Brandenburg Gate. Photo: Monika Skolimowska / dpa-Zentralbild / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
There are currently two coalition rounds in Berlin. In addition to the traffic light alliance at the federal level, the SPD, the Greens and the Left Party are negotiating a new government program for the capital.
The SPD, the Greens and the Left in Berlin started coalition negotiations just four weeks after the election to the House of Representatives.
Top politicians of the three parties, including SPD state chairman Franziska Giffey, Green party leader Bettina Jarasch and left chairwoman Katina Schubert, met on Friday morning in a conference center near the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin-Mitte. The so-called umbrella group should meet regularly in the coming weeks and decide what will be included in the coalition agreement.
Members of the citizens’ initiative “Volksentscheid Berlin car-free” and the “Deutsche Wohnen & Co. expropriate” initiative were already waiting for the party representatives on Friday to draw attention to their concerns. The referendum on the expropriation of large real estate companies in the capital is considered to be one of the most difficult topics in the coalition talks. The supporters of the expropriation initiative loudly demanded its implementation.
Will the referendum be implemented?
The left are also in favor of it in principle. The Greens see expropriations as a last resort to secure affordable housing, the SPD is against it. During the exploratory talks, the parties agreed on a commission of experts that is to be set up to examine “possibilities, ways and prerequisites for implementation” and to develop recommendations for further action by the Senate within a year.
From the initiative’s point of view, this is superfluous. This is also partly seen within the Berlin Left. Until the coalition agreement is ready, the negotiators don’t just have to fine-tune the wording on this point.
According to the current schedule, the government program for the continuation of the three-party coalition, which has provided the Senate since 2016, is to be in place until the end of November. To this end, 16 working groups, which will be set up on Friday, develop proposals on a wide range of topics. The most important ones include budget and finance, urban development, construction, renting, mobility and economics. The SPD, the Greens and the Left each send five to eight representatives to the working groups.
Berlin’s SPD chairman Franziska Giffey sees the joint exploratory paper decided a week ago as a good basis for the negotiations. The SPD, together with the other two partners, was able to agree “on a new path for Berlin”, she told the German Press Agency.
Housing construction, more police officers and underground expansion
The agreed 19 guidelines included an alliance for new residential construction and affordable housing, a “restart program” for the economy, the expansion of the underground and more staff for the police. Giffey said that the negotiations were now about substantiating all of this in terms of content and content. “Our common goal is for the new state government to be in place this year.”
Left chairwoman Katina Schubert told the dpa that she was “really optimistic” that the talks would lead to success in the end. «You just have to put the election programs next to each other. If all parties take their election programs seriously, it should be possible to knit them into a sustainable and progressive government program for five years. “
At the start of the coalition negotiations, Berlin’s financial situation will be discussed in detail. Greens boss Werner Graf considers an overview to be indispensable. “It is just right and professional to do Kassensturz at the beginning of coalition negotiations and see what is there, what is still going and where can we go?” He told the dpa.