Nach Berlin-Wahl: Rot-Grün-Rot einigt sich auf Sondierungsgespräche

Two and a half weeks after the Berlin parliamentary election, the Left, Green and Social Democratic parties have agreed to begin exploratory talks. They also reached a package of actions for handling a possible government on issues of anti-Semitism, social cohesion and organized crime. "This fulfills the basic prerequisites for the explorations," states a paper from the Green Party in Berlin.

Both the paper and these agreements are available to the Handelsblatt. The Green Party and the Social Democrats made these agreements a prerequisite for exploratory talks. During the campaign, individual Left representatives had made several statements that critics deemed anti-Semitic. Additionally, a Left party rally in the Berlin district of Neukölln caused controversy, featuring a head of an Arab ethnic and partly criminal clan as well as a controversial pro-Palestinian activist.

Commitment to Israel and Jewish life was agreed upon in eight points to protect Jewish life in Germany. "We protect Jewish life, strengthen coexistence and work for peace and understanding," states the agreement. Berlin takes responsibility for the persecution, degrading, and murder of six million European Jews during the Shoah committed by Germany.