The Berlin left is deeply upset about the SPD’s turn to a government coalition with the CDU and is ruling out future negotiations with SPD state leader Franziska Giffey. “We can now be angry, and I think we are rightly angry,” said Left Party leader Katina Schubert in the evening at a party conference.
That Giffey wanted to hold coalition talks with the CDU state chairman Kai Wegner – “to be honest, that’s shameful,” said Schubert. Schubert called it “denunciations” that the previous governing mayor had given her previous partners, the Left and the Greens, joint responsibility for the end of the red-green-red coalition. These were “stunk and lied”. The statements would have caused long-lasting damage.
The left is now adjusting to its role in the opposition, but is aiming for a comeback. “We are the Berlin left and we will be back,” said Schubert.
Acting Senator for Culture Klaus Lederer said: “These are really not good days for Berlin.” A new edition of the red-green-red coalition had not failed on the left. “It was very clear: where there is a will, there is no Wegner,” said Lederer.
