Political explorations and debates after state elections in Germany

In view of the AfD's recent electoral successes, the legal vice president of the Hanover regional church, Christoph Goos, has reiterated the call for the party to be banned. “The free, democratic basic order has never been as endangered as it is today,” said the constitutional law expert at a specialist conference on Saturday.

“I expect those eligible to apply to take action now,” demanded Goos to applause at the event organized by the Lüneburg Protestant church district. The church itself is not entitled to apply, but it can use its voice in society, he explained. Christians should make it clear what values, framework conditions and rules of the game they stand for.

The SPD believes that the search for a successor to Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier must now be pushed forward. “The state elections are over, now it is time to enter the home stretch in the search for candidates for the office of Federal President,” said SPD parliamentary secretary Dirk Wiese. He sticks to it: “It should be a woman.” She must act prudently “and have good judgment in order to address and resolve conflicts at an early stage,” emphasized Wiese. It should also have “a good standing on the international stage”.

With their positioning against the AfD, the churches are in some ways among the losers in the recent state elections, says theology professor Reiner Anselm, whose hobbyhorse is the relationship between politics and churches. He advises his church to advocate for equalization more in the future. “Protestantism has no party,” he says in an interview. Referring to the AfD's electoral successes, he pleaded for a moderate level of communication with voters: "Not everyone who says they don't want their usual cultural environment to change significantly is a fascist or Nazi. The church must respond more closely to such feelings, which manifest themselves in electoral decisions."

Merz was also elected by people who did not necessarily value him personally, but who attributed him economic competence. “And now they notice: He doesn’t deliver,” said the former Prime Minister of Rhineland-Palatinate. The Chancellor is telling people that they don't work enough. Schweitzer also sees reasons for the CDU's crisis in the years of Chancellor Angela Merkel. “Mrs Merkel deliberately avoided political debates and excluded whole sections of society from the political dialogue, which became a non-voter reservoir.” These would come back. “But not to the SPD, CDU, the Greens or the FDP, but to the AfD.”

In the ongoing explorations between the AfD and BSW in Saxony-Anhalt, negotiations are, among other things, about how to deal with Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk. This is reported by the “Mitteldeutsche Zeitung” published in Halle. According to “MZ” research, the two parties want to explore in the coming weeks how their respective goals for the public broadcaster fit together. AfD election winner Ulrich Siegmund has already announced that he wants to quickly terminate the state broadcasting contracts and set up a new broadcasting service.

According to “MZ” research, the BSW is entering into discussions with a less radical proposal. The Wagenknecht party therefore first wants to have it checked whether the MDR can be reformed - according to the ideas of the BSW. One criticism of BSW is that the station has been too close to the government in recent years. If the Wagenknecht party has its way, a new commission could examine whether and to what extent the MDR can be reformed. It remains unclear how the AfD and BSW will agree.

There is fundamental agreement on another topic: both parties are calling for an investigative committee in the state parliament to examine the actions of the authorities during the corona pandemic. There was actually already a government commission with a similar mandate in Saxony-Anhalt - but the AfD still sees the pandemic measures from 2020 as “unjust”. In her 100-day program, she promised during the election campaign to “name the culprits and hold them accountable.” It can therefore be assumed that state employees, civil servants and officials from back then will testify as witnesses in the committee. The BSW also wants a Corona investigation committee, and the new state parliamentary group has already made a decision on this.

The special party conference of the Left Berlin has accepted a proposal from the state executive committee that calls for exploratory talks to be started with the Greens and the SPD. An amendment to the main motion was spontaneously withdrawn. The brief application states: “The Left Berlin invites Alliance 90 / The Greens Berlin and the SPD Berlin to exploratory talks with the aim of examining together whether the political prerequisites for starting coalition negotiations exist.” The election program is the basis for the talks. In a second vote, the delegates voted for substantive conditions for these talks.

The co-federal chairwoman of the Left has called on her party's Berlin regional association to confidently enter into negotiations about a government. “They are attacking us for what we are planning to do,” she said at the special party conference, referring to the criticism of the past few days and her party’s socialization plans. They want the party to become “subtle”. “We don’t let others tell us what we should demand,” said Schwerdtner. That’s why we will “go into the discussions with confidence”. Schwerdtner also promised to protect Elif Eralp and “all comrades” from attacks. "Of course they hate us for what we do here. Let their storm be the wind that carries our wings higher."

The deputy SPD chairman Alexander Schweitzer has made it a condition for a coalition with the Left in Berlin that it unequivocally distances itself from anti-Semitic positions. “The Left Party in Berlin has a clear anti-Semitism problem,” Schweitzer told the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung” (Saturday edition). "She has to solve that. Only then can the SPD accept her as a coalition partner in Berlin." Anyone who tolerates people in their ranks who not only formulate a “completely legitimate criticism of Israeli government policy,” but also deny Israel’s right to exist and even spread fantasies of expulsion, is violating the “democratic post-war consensus in Germany.” Schweitzer added: "If the party's line on the issue of anti-Semitism is really as clear as the state chairwoman and top candidate publicly postulates, then the party leadership must ensure that this position is recognized by all elected officials and party representatives, without exception."

The Greens support the attempt to form a coalition with the Left in Berlin, which, among other things, plans to expropriate tens of thousands of apartments. Co-chair Felix Banaszak told the “FAZ” (Saturday edition): “As the winner of the election, the Berlin Left deserves the chance to prove that you can form a government with them.” Banaszak also defended the party, which was criticized for allegations of anti-Semitism, against “disproportionate” attacks. She managed to “give a voice and hope to people who have recently felt their everyday concerns have not been heard by politics” – including Muslims and Palestinians.