“If you listen to the Chancellor at the Germany summit, you can literally see his fear”

Left leader Ines Schwerdtner defends herself against criticism from Chancellor Friedrich Merz. “If you listen to the Chancellor at the Germany summit, you can literally see his fear,” Schwerdtner told the news portal “t-online”. “In front of a government in Berlin in which he and his party no longer play a role.” Merz fears “a Berlin that can become a beacon for a different policy.”

On Wednesday, Merz called on the SPD and the Greens to prevent the election of left-wing politician Elif Eralp as governing mayor in Berlin. “We are resisting growing anti-Semitism in Germany,” the CDU chairman said in a speech at an event organized by “Handelsblatt” and “Wirtschaftswoche” in Berlin.

Schwerdtner criticized: “The fact that the Chancellor is using the fight against anti-Semitism to discredit a left-wing mayoral candidate and a possible government is shabby.” Anti-Semitism must be fought decisively everywhere and not used as a party-political weapon, said the left-wing politician.

Red-Red-Green will explore

She judged: “This Chancellor has failed politically.” His government is unpopular and he cannot close his own ranks. “It’s going so far that in Saxony-Anhalt the AfD is obviously getting votes from the CDU parliamentary group for its state parliament president,” she said, adding: “What a shame.”

In the meantime, the way should be clear for red-green-red exploratory talks to form a government. The Left, the Greens and the SPD agreed on a package of actions from party circles that would take effect in the event of anti-Semitic incidents, as was announced on Thursday. In doing so, they removed a key obstacle to the start of explorations.

Most recently, top politicians from the three parties met three times for so-called preliminary discussions lasting several hours.