The Berlin SPD members have voted on the coalition agreement with the CDU. Yesterday evening, one minute before midnight, the deadline for the member vote, which started at the beginning of April, ended. As of Friday morning, a good 11,450 members took part. That is almost two-thirds of the 18,556 social democrats with voting rights in the capital.
The required minimum participation of 20 percent of those entitled to vote (3714) was reached long before the deadline. According to an SPD spokesman, most of the letters with the ballot papers were initially still in the mail and are now to be taken to the Kurt Schumacher House, the Berlin party headquarters in Wedding, and locked up there. The count begins on Sunday morning. The result should be announced in the afternoon.
Since the SPD state executive recommended starting coalition negotiations with the CDU at the end of the exploratory talks, there have been considerable discussions within the SPD. Several SPD district associations have spoken out against a black-red state government. The Jusos have organized a campaign against black and red and called for voting no in the vote.
The two SPD state chairmen, Raed Saleh, and Franziska Giffey, who is still the governing mayor, have campaigned for the alliance with the CDU. If there is a majority No to the coalition agreement, the question should arise as to whether they should remain at the head of the state association.
