Berlin - Left: Gregor Gysi is pushing for Vanessa Emde to be kicked out - "anti-Semitic and out of the question"

Left-wing politician Gregor Gysi has spoken out in favor of expelling the controversial Berlin MP Vanessa Emde from the parliamentary group. “I hope that we exclude them,” said Gysi in the podcast of “Bild” journalist Paul Ronzheimer.

The Neukölln MP Emde has been making the path to forming a government in Berlin more difficult with her statements for weeks. Among other things, Emde is accused of casting doubt on Israel's right to exist. Part of the coalition agreement is to be a joint declaration by the Left, the Greens and the SPD, which the parties agreed on before the explorations began. It contains commitments to the protection of Jewish life in Berlin, to Israel's right to exist and to a two-state solution that should enable both Israel's security and the self-determination of the Palestinians. However, Emde argues that states – unlike people – have no right to exist.

Regarding Emde's statements, Gysi said in the Ronzheimer podcast: "That is anti-Semitic and, above all, out of the question for my party." Israel's right to exist marks a limit for him, said the 78-year-old. "We need red lines that cannot be crossed." Gysi was parliamentary group leader of the Left in the Bundestag from 2005 to 2015, and from 2020 to 2023 he was its foreign policy spokesman.

The Left recently voted in favor of coalition negotiations at a party conference. On the sidelines of the event, Emde demonstrated against the course of her party leadership. The leadership of the Left parliamentary group had already declared that there was no longer any common basis for working with them. Emde is threatened with expulsion from the parliamentary group; two thirds of the left-wing MPs would have to agree to this. It is not certain whether such a clear majority will support the end of Emde. Most recently, a decision in the case of the controversial MPs was postponed several times.