Berlin: Red-Green-Red Coalition Talks to Commence in November
The Left Party, the Greens and the SPD have finished their preliminary talks and agreed on a roughly 30-page paper covering housing, transportation, schools and more. The CDU has reacted with sharp criticism.
In the aftermath of the state election, four parties – the far-left Die Linke, the left-wing Greens, and the center-left SPD – are set to commence formal coalition negotiations in Berlin in November. Following their exploratory talks on Saturday, the parties have unanimously agreed to protect Jewish life, recognize Israel's right to exist and pursue a two-state solution to secure Israel's safety and allow Palestinians self-determination.
These talks will involve significant housing, environmental, transportation, education, and security policies. The housing plan includes expropriating landlords with over 10,000 apartments at a cap of 16 billion Euro, which would be reviewed by the constitutional court. The parties also seek to cap rent increases, construct 100,000 affordable units, and create a rent oversight body.
Environmental initiatives include making the city a "sponge city" with more trees, parks, and fountains. Transportation plans include more bike lanes, bus and tram signal priority, and calmer streets. Education aims to create community schools, keep education free, and ban cell phones in elementary schools. Security measures include no cuts to police staffing, maintaining the domestic intelligence agency, and reviewing knife and weapons ban zones.
The parties also plan a culture funding law, free museum Sundays, and a culture card for young people. Additionally, they aim to strengthen democracy initiatives, neighborhood canteens, and voting rights at both municipal and state levels for residents who have lived in Germany for five years.
Written by urgent.news from The Berlin Spectator's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
