Red-red-green: Berlin Greens vote for coalition negotiations

At a small party congress, the so-called Land Committee, the Berlin Greens approved the exploratory paper with only two votes against and paved the way for coalition negotiations. The Greens, the SPD and the Left had negotiated the text in recent days. The left had won in the election on September 20 with its top candidate Elif Eralp 25.7 percent. She claims the office of Governing Mayor. At the beginning of the meeting, in which numerous individual members and observers participated alongside 45 delegates in Berlin-Kreuzberg, the election-loser and defeated top candidate Werner Graf highlighted the successes of the soundings from a green point of view – climate protection, rent, traffic calming “in all neighbourhoods”. Berlin should become cleaner, including with a “packaging tax”. Among the many planned expenses were count energy bonus and social tickets, but above all a large Senate housing program and the cost of expropriating more than 100,000 apartments. Graf criticized the attention that Berlin conditions have found nationwide. In addition, the situation in Saxony-Anhalt is neglected, where the AfD seeks to take over the government. This is much more dangerous, said Graf, than a “progressive government” for Berlin. Nina Stahr, the country’s chairman, offered the approximately 18,000 party members a thorough evaluation of the weak election result. Count’s co-candidate Bettina Jarasch praised the anti-Semitism paper of the preliminaries as one of the best papers of its kind ever seen. According to Jarasch, one now has “clear procedures in case there are anti-Semitic incidents in other groups”. The leadership of the Left Party “must live up to its responsibility and prove that it is assertive.” We are convinced that such a progressive coalition can best address the major future challenges we face in our city: for real climate protection, for tenant protection, for a real change in transport and for a defensive democracy. In addition, an election evaluation should be discussed, which admits that the result of the campaign of the two leading candidates Werner Graf and Bettina Jarasch was not good: 14.3 percent are the worst result for us Alliance Greens in Berlin in twenty years. We did not manage to get through with our topics and convey a green vision for Berlin. Especially for younger people we could not make a convincing offer. But also in other population groups “you could not achieve the result that we have set ourselves”. A structural reform in the party is therefore announced. After the coalition talks, both the coalition agreement and the staff for the Senate should then take place a member survey. The way “to find the Senate staff” was to be “transparent”. This took up criticism of the list of top candidates, which, according to the popular assessment, was not transparent. The top staff had “chosen themselves”, past the party, so a delegate from Mitte. In the discussion, it was criticized that, for example, in climate protection, the left had enforced 36 out of 39 points and only two proposals were original from the Greens. It was also complained that the negotiators were precisely those who were responsible for the weak election result. Berlin is getting a government “that finally sees the suffering in Gaza.” Mrs Silke Gebel spoke of a polarisation that was causing her concern. The fears of the Jewish fellow citizens must be taken seriously, the exploratory paper reflects this. One delegate, who refused to start coalition talks, called the paper a “Heaven Command” and, in addition to a lack of budgetary solidarity, complained that the paper and the soundings did not send a single signal to Ukraine. The former Federal Minister, Lisa Paus, criticized the own election campaign, but called for the start of coalition negotiations and called for negotiations in such a way that “the progressive wave passes from Berlin”. The request to put the result of the exploratory statements to the vote of all Members was not accepted.