Before the planned exploratory talks for a coalition of the Left, the Greens and the SPD in Berlin, the federal chair of the Green Party, Franziska Brantner, has set conditions. In a conversation with “Spiegel,” Brantner said about a possible state government in Berlin: “Personally, I find it difficult to imagine the Left Party leading the interior or justice departments as long as there are people in the party with connections to organized crime or extremist forces such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the PFLP, or Hamas.”
Regarding demands in the Left's election program for the abolition of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and considerations regarding the police, according to which it should be "replaced or supplemented by social work wherever possible," Brantner said: "We have a clearly different position and attitude: We will not allow the Office for the Protection of the Constitution or the police to be abolished, that is not acceptable to us."
In addition, Brantner also pointed to the Left Party's decision with regard to Israel's right to exist: "Therefore, it is not too much to ask that this must be the basis for a government to declare its commitment to the State of Israel's right to exist and to name Hamas as a terrorist organization."
As the winner of the Berlin election on Friday evening, the Berlin Left decided at a party conference to invite the Greens and the SPD to exploratory talks. The aim is to check whether the prerequisites for starting coalition negotiations exist. The talks are scheduled to begin next week. First, the Left wants to speak separately with representatives of the other two parties.
Former SPD Chancellor Olaf Scholz expects concessions from the Left in the planned talks. He couldn't predict everything that would come out of it, said Scholz at a public discussion on Friday evening in Nuthetal in Brandenburg. "Whatever changes the left accepts for itself. It will have to."
The Berlin Greens said: “We are ready to start negotiations as soon as possible.” At a first informal meeting with the left in the middle of the week, it was made clear that “clarification about anti-Semitism, racism and social cohesion” was a basic prerequisite for exploratory investigations.
The exploratory team consists of the two top candidates Werner Graf and Bettina Jarasch and the two state chairmen Nina Stahr and Philmon Ghirmai. Later, a small party conference will decide whether to enter into coalition negotiations. After the negotiations, the members vote on joining the coalition.
The Berlin SPD state chairman Steffen Krach had shown that he was generally ready for exploratory talks. But there is no automatic guarantee that these will later lead to concrete coalition negotiations. The left wing of the SPD called for coalition negotiations with the Left and the Greens. Other parts of the SPD are more skeptical.
The CDU/CSU faction leader in the Bundestag, Thorsten Frei, warned the Greens and the SPD against government cooperation with the Left. “The Berlin Left Party maintains disturbingly close contact with Jew-haters and people from the orbit of organized crime,” Frei told the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger”.
“The SPD and the Greens must influence their state associations so that they do not fall for lure offers.” Berlin as the capital and showcase of Germany around the world must not “fall into the hands of the Left Party, which represents a blatant threat to our security.”
Since election Sunday, there has been heated discussion across the country about anti-Semitism in the Left Party and contacts in the clan milieu. The debate also sparked great skepticism among potential coalition partners the Greens and SPD. Both parties called on the left to clarify that it stands against anti-Semitism and for the protection of Jewish life.
Parts of the Berlin Left have long been criticized for their positions on Israel and Palestine and anti-Semitism. An election party for the Left in Neukölln caused a stir, at which both the head of an Arab-born and partly criminal clan and a controversial pro-Palestinian activist were present. He is said to be close to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which is classified as a terrorist organization by the EU.
The left-wing Bundestag member from Neukölln, Ferat Koçak, is under pressure because he exchanged friendly chat messages with a son of an extended family associated with the clan milieu.
