Coalition negotiations in Berlin: Left, Greens and SPD under pressure

A week after the Berlin House of Representatives election, the prospects of coalition negotiations between the Left, the Greens and the SPD are increasing, as is the excitement surrounding them. The Left decided to hold exploratory talks on Friday, and the SPD followed suit on Saturday.

In fact, the mix of unexplained anti-Semitism tendencies and possible connections to clan crime on the left strains the inhibitions of potential partners to the limit. And the socialization plans for real estate don't make things any better. Still, refusing coalition talks might not make as much sense as it seems. Not because a red-green-red coalition is desirable, but because the path there would be instructive.

Excluding the left now would follow the example of the AfD's firewall. But the last thing the Republic needs is a second firewall. The first one doesn't work. Even if the AfD and the Left can only be compared with all sorts of contortions, Berlin shows the dilemma: a democratic center that is losing votes would exclude the only two winning factions from the outset if it were to concentrate exclusively on a possible coalition of the CDU, the Greens and the SPD.