The Left, the Greens and the SPD in Berlin agree on a further path to forming a government

The Left, the Greens and the SPD in Berlin have agreed on a “further common path” towards a possible government formation. The three parties announced this in a short statement after a second so-called preliminary discussion, without giving any details. It was simply said that two intensive preliminary discussions had been held. “In the coming week we will bring the current discussions to a conclusion.”

Last Thursday, top politicians from the three parties held their first preliminary discussion. The aim of this comparatively unusual format was to reach an agreement on the recently hotly debated topic of anti-Semitism, how to deal with racism and organized crime.

The Greens and SPD had made this a prerequisite for exploratory talks. The background to this is several incidents involving the Left as election winners, which have also caused concern among potential coalition partners.

Open questions

How and when things will continue next week remains to be seen. The parties did not provide any information on this and pointed out that confidentiality had been agreed. The statement, which consists of just three sentences, can be read as meaning that the three potential partners see themselves on the right path and are possibly willing to explore forming a government after the preliminary discussions.

Exploratory talks are not yet coalition negotiations. Rather, those involved decide which points are particularly important to them and whether coalition negotiations would even be promising. Such conversations can also fail.