Berlin’s governing Social Democrats and Greens are moving toward formal coalition talks with the Left Party, a step that has triggered sharp criticism from national political figures and conservative groups.
The three parties concluded exploratory discussions on Saturday and announced plans to begin negotiations, according to reports from German media. The proposed alliance, often referred to as a "red-green-red" coalition, has drawn opposition from within the SPD’s own ranks, with media citing 20 SPD lawmakers opposed to negotiations with the Left Party. Franziska Giffey, Berlin’s outgoing economy senator and an SPD member, publicly rejected the coalition’s proposal to socialize 160,000 apartments owned by large corporations, stating it was not the right path for the city’s economic growth or housing affordability.
Nationwide, conservative leaders have condemned the potential partnership. CSU leader Markus Söder criticized the move during the Young Union’s Germany Day event, while the Young Union, the youth wing of the CDU and CSU, passed a resolution demanding the exclusion of a future Berlin government from federal intelligence briefings, including those from the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the Federal Criminal Police Office. The resolution also called for a federal ban on the socialization of housing and the establishment of a federal body to document alleged legal violations by the Berlin government. The Young Union argued that a red-green-red coalition would represent a "cultural break" requiring "social ostracism."
Federal Green Party co-leader Cem Özdemir also distanced his party from the Left, stating that the Greens "cannot form a coalition or work with such a party" in reference to Berlin’s Left Party. Culture Minister Wolfram Weimer, an independent, warned that a coalition led by the Left—the successor to East Germany’s ruling SED—would betray the democratic consensus on historical memory, citing concerns over antisemitism and the party’s stance on DDR-era injustices. "In Berlin, where the Holocaust was planned and executed, such an attitude must not govern," Weimer told *Bild*.
The Young Union’s resolution further demanded immediate federal action to block the coalition’s housing policies, framing the Left as a security risk. CDU lawmaker Johannes Volkmann, in an interview, described parts of the Left Party as a security threat and called for its political ostracism. Meanwhile, CDU/CSU parliamentary group leader Thorsten Frei criticized the Left’s proposals, stating, "They have gone too far."
The coalition talks follow an agreement among Berlin’s Left, Greens, and SPD to review antisemitic statements within their ranks, as noted in earlier reporting. The parties had also agreed to cap compensation for nationalized apartments at €16 billion and exclude units built since 2021 from socialization plans.
