Ink dry, resistance in: Left MPs attack their own exploration paper in Berlin

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No sooner is the ink dry than the Berlin Left is seething. Just a short time after the Left, Greens, and SPD agreed to launch coalition exploration talks for a possible red-green-red state government, Bundestag members of the Left are distancing themselves from their own party leadership. At the center of the criticism: of all things, the antisemitism mechanism that was the precondition for the talks in the first place.

What does this mean for government formation in Berlin? The fact is: three parties wanted to talk to each other — and agreed to make the sensitive issue of antisemitism a condition. Now it is precisely this clause that has triggered protest from their own ranks.

What the three parties have agreed on so far

Two and a half weeks after the election to the Berlin House of Representatives, the Left, Greens, and SPD announced on Thursday that they would begin coalition exploration talks. All three parties confirmed this in unison. According to those involved, a shared understanding on the fiercely debated issue of antisemitism was the prerequisite for this step.

A "package of measures against antisemitism" had cleared the obstacle, according to advance reports. On October 1, the three parties met for the first time after the election to clarify whether they wanted to explore at all. At the outset, they laid down principles on Jewish life, antisemitism, Israel, and coexistence in the city — the Berliner Zeitung documented the agreement verbatim. WELT speaks of "sharp criticism" of individual points, while Tagesschau notes that parts of the Left party are already on the defensive over how they handle the issue.

Where the protest is coming from

While the exploration negotiations are formally underway, open resistance is forming within the Left's Bundestag faction. As Der Spiegel reports, numerous MPs and party representatives are attacking the red-green-red exploration paper "in the sharpest terms." The mechanism against antisemitism is reportedly the main target of the criticism.

This means that it is precisely the part of the agreement that was negotiated as the condition for the explorations in the first place that is now coming under fire. For you, that means: the Berlin Left is caught between two stools — the Bundestag faction at the federal level and the state party, which wants to form a government with the SPD and Greens.

What's at stake

The explorations are the attempt, after the Berlin election, to build a governing majority beyond the previous constellation. The Left, Greens, and SPD are aiming for a red-green-red alliance. The fact that MPs from within the Left are now attacking the very basis of the talks makes the project politically delicate: the party leadership must simultaneously calm the Bundestag wing and keep the potential coalition partners on board.

Whether the criticism will affect the progress of the explorations remains open. According to the parties, the exploration talks themselves are to continue — whether the paper will hold in its current form will become clear in the coming days.