Berlin SPD parliamentary group elects Steffen Krach and Derya Caglar as dual leadership

The Berlin SPD parliamentary group has elected Steffen Krach and Derya Caglar as its chairmen. The dpa learned this from faction circles. The SPD state chairman and the previous deputy parliamentary group leader lead the parliamentary group together. Until now, unlike the Left and the Greens, there had been no dual leadership in the Berlin SPD in the House of Representatives.

The previous long-time SPD parliamentary group leader Raed Saleh surprisingly announced on Tuesday last week that he would not be running for office again. Two days later, Krach (47) and Caglar (43) were nominated as dual leaders.

Noise is new to the faction

Krach was the SPD's top candidate in the election to the House of Representatives and entered the state parliament. Caglar has been a member since 2016. The election of the parliamentary group leader is seen as an important step in the reorganization of the Berlin Social Democrats ahead of possible exploratory talks with the Left and the Greens.

In the election on September 20th, the SPD slipped from 18.4 to just 12.1 percent, making it the smallest faction in the state parliament. The Left was by far the strongest force with 25.7 percent. They were followed by the CDU (18.8 percent), AfD (16.3 percent) and the Greens (14.3 percent).