According to media reports, the governing mayor and SPD state chairwoman, Franziska Giffey, is aiming for a coalition with the CDU after the repeat election in Berlin. Giffey wants to propose to the SPD state board at its meeting this Wednesday that coalition negotiations with the election winner CDU be started, reports “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”, “Tagesspiegel”, “Bild/B.Z.” and other media without citing sources.
So far, a red-green-red coalition has ruled in Berlin, which, alongside CDU-led alliances, would also have a majority in the new House of Representatives. The German Press Agency learned from SPD circles that the trend is towards black and red, but that is not yet fixed. According to reports, the SPD parliamentary group, which was informed about the status of the exploratory talks, is also tending in this direction. “Tagesspiegel” and “Bild/B.Z.” reported that the SPD state leadership had informed the federal chairmen Lars Klingbeil and Saskia Esken of their intentions.
In the case of a CDU-SPD alliance, Giffey would have to leave the town hall
A Berlin SPD spokesman said when asked by the dpa about the reports: “A recommendation to start coalition negotiations has not yet been made to the state executive.” The exploratory team of the Berlin SPD, which had discussed the possibility of forming a government with various parties in the past few days, will only submit a recommendation to the state executive committee to start coalition talks at its meeting on Wednesday.
The CDU clearly 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 with 4.6 percent from the parliament, which now has five instead of six parliamentary groups.
If the CDU and SPD start coalition negotiations and these are successful, there will be a change of power in the capital, which has been governed red-green-red since 2016. Giffey, who has only been Prime Minister since December 2021, would have to leave City Hall again. In this case, the new governing mayor would be the CDU top candidate and state chairman 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. However, Giffey could become a senator in a black-red government.
The left wants coalition negotiations with the SPD and the Greens
Meanwhile, the left wants to continue to form a coalition with the SPD and the Greens. The state board of the party decided to propose the start of coalition negotiations with the previous alliance partners at a party conference planned for Friday.
“During the soundings, we certainly got the impression that
Since February 17, the parties have been exploring in exploratory talks whether there is a common basis for starting coalition negotiations and for forming a government. The CDU spoke three times each with the SPD and the Greens. SPD, Greens and Left have also met three times in the past day.
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.
Election results All elected MPs Tweets Lederer “Bild” report “FAZ” report Tagesspiegel report
