Nach der Wahl: Durchbruch bei Sondierungen zur Regierungsbildung in Berlin

Four weeks after the Berlin election for the city parliament, the Left, Green, and Social Democratic parties have successfully completed their polling sessions on forming a government. The party executives have been proposed to initiate coalition negotiations, according to Deutsche Presse-Agentur. The Green party plans to discuss this at a small party meeting on Monday.

The Social Democratic party is expected to decide the basis for coalition negotiations based on their polling paper, with no specific date announced yet. The Left party has only scheduled a party meeting for October 31st, due to the two-week autumn holidays in Berlin, aimed at approving coalition negotiations. With the agreement of all three parties, coalition negotiations could commence in early November.

A joint press statement in the House of Statistics in Berlin-Mitte is planned for 17:00. The parties aim to inform about the polling paper and further steps. Negotiations were initiated on Thursday last week. Previously, the three parties agreed on handling cases of antisemitic incidents within the Left party, including potential sanctions up to faction expulsion.

This understanding was a prerequisite for the Green and Social Democratic parties to start polling. The Left party emerged as the strongest force in the Berlin election on September 20th, with 25.7 percent. The CDU followed with 18.8 percent, the AfD with 16.3 percent, the Green party with 14.3 percent, and the SPD with their worst result ever at 12.1 percent.

The previously ruling CDU/SPD coalition has lost its majority. The proposed tripartite coalition of Left, Green, and SPD would have 91 seats in the new Berlin parliament, which is 14 more than an absolute majority. A coalition of CDU, Green, and SPD would have only two seats over the absolute majority.