From the point of view of the Berlin Jusos, the continuation of the previous government coalition is still the first choice, but the opposition is also more attractive than a black-red alliance. “If the majority votes against the coalition agreement, we expect that we will sit down again with the Greens and the Left,” said Sinem Ta?an-Funke, the Juso state chairman of the German Press Agency. Then the Greens in particular would have to show how serious they were about wanting to continue Red-Green-Red. “If it turns out in the new situation that we can’t get together, then the SPD mustn’t shy away from the opposition.”

The Berlin SPD members have until Friday evening to cast their votes and indicate whether they are in favor of the coalition with the Christian Democrats favored by the state executive or against. The result should be announced on Sunday afternoon.

It is considered a crucial hurdle on the way to a red-black state government – and among other things also for the political future of the current governing mayor and SPD state chairman Franziska Giffey. “In the event of a negative vote, we expect the party leadership to question whether their position is still correct,” said Ta?an-Funke.

The Berlin Jusos under their two chairmen Ta?an-Funke and Peter Maass took a clear stance against black and red from the start and criticized the coalition agreement as “a black corset with red ribbons”. At the start of their campaign, Ta?an-Funke announced that the Jusos would only rest once they had prevented this coalition.

“Our impression is that the mood has shifted towards rejection of the contract in recent weeks,” said Ta?an-Funke. “We are very satisfied with our campaign. We receive a lot of messages from members who tell us that we convinced them to vote no,” said the Juso state chair. “In a very short time, we managed to set up a broad-based campaign.”

This shows that the SPD is still a strong member party. “This strong membership also assures us that we will be well positioned for any outcome of the decision.” The discussion about the coalition agreement was largely factual and constructive. “In social networks we would have wished for one or the other verbal derailment less.”