State board of the Berlin CDU votes for coalition negotiations with the SPD

The Berlin CDU will start coalition negotiations with the SPD. The party’s state executive spoke out in favor of forming a black-red alliance in the capital on Thursday afternoon.

The board of directors voted unanimously to start coalition negotiations, the CDU Berlin tweeted in the late afternoon. “We had significantly more intersections with the Social Democrats,” said Wegner, referring to the exploratory talks with the SPD and the Greens. The CDU had “agreed on a common path” with the SPD.

Already had on Wednesday the majority of the SPD leadership voted for talks with the CDU. However, within the SPD there is also criticism of the plans for a coalition with the CDU.

The coalition talks are to begin next week, as announced by CDU top candidate Kai Wegner. On Monday it is planned to set up the working groups for the negotiations. In the days that followed, the umbrella group would meet with the top representatives of the parties for the first time and discuss the further procedure. The talks could be completed by the end of March.

In the case of the SPD, the party members should then decide whether or not to enter into a coalition with the CDU on the basis of the contract that was then negotiated. The new government could then stand until the end of April.

Should there be a black-red government alliance, Franziska Giffey (SPD), who has only been the governing mayor since December 2021, would have to leave the Red City Hall. She has declared her willingness to work as a senator in the new state government. In this case, the new head of government would be the CDU top candidate Kai 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.

The SPD state chairman Giffey had the Swing from red-green-red to the CDU justified, among other things, with “respect for the election result”. A new start is not possible with the previous partners, the Greens and the Left. 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.

The CDU won the repeat election on February 12 with 28.2 percent. SPD and Greens both got 18.4 percent. With 53 votes, the Social Democrats only have a wafer-thin lead over the Greens. They did worse than ever in a House of Representatives election. The left came to 12.2 percent, the AfD to 9.1. The FDP flew out of parliament with 4.6 percent.

The Berlin Constitutional Court declared the September 26, 2021 election invalid due to “serious systemic deficiencies” and numerous electoral errors. The court ordered a full retake. Nothing changes in the length of the five-year legislative period. So it ends in 2026.

Broadcast: rbb24 evening show, March 2nd, 2023, 7:30 p.m