Exploratory talks end in Berlin

The Linke, the Greens and the SPD concluded their exploratory talks on Saturday, 17 October, and now officially seek to form a governing alliance, according to Deutsche Welle. The SPD and the Greens plan to decide on Monday, 19 October, whether to enter formal coalition talks, while the Linke will vote at a special party conference in two weeks. Deutsche Welle considers it increasingly likely that Linke lead candidate Elif Eralp becomes the city's governing mayor. The Linke won the Berlin state election with 25.7% of the vote, ahead of the CDU, the Greens and the SPD, and more than doubled its 2023 result by campaigning on housing costs. Formal talks would still take time before a new government could take office.

Expropriation plan and federal stance

The parties' joint exploratory paper would expropriate private housing companies holding 10,000 or more flats in Berlin, against compensation. Deutsche Welle puts the stock affected at 160,000 flats, with billions in compensation falling on the state, and says it is uncertain whether the plan clears all legal hurdles. In early July the federal coalition committee decided that federal law would make state-level expropriation of private rental stock impossible, in order to protect private housing construction. Asked whether that decision was now off the table, government spokesman Stefan Kornelius said it still applies. He said the federal government sees no active reason to step in for now, and he expected Berlin's decision process to take a few more weeks:

“The federal government is monitoring this debate in Berlin. It currently has no active reason to intervene and will decide at the appropriate time.”

Kornelius added that the Berlin parties must first complete their own decisions before Berlin's plans can be assessed.

Economy minister and investors

Economy minister Katherina Reiche (CDU) sees a 'danger to the location' reaching well beyond Berlin. She said the Linke not only talks openly about expropriation but makes it a condition for a coalition, and she accused the party of tolerating manifest antisemitism in its ranks. Earlier, the Linke won a case at the Federal Constitutional Court over an Instagram video that Reiche's ministry posted, and she must first remove it. Her remarks came before an investment summit in Berlin that Chancellor Friedrich Merz opens on the evening of 19 October. Reiche urged the SPD and the Greens to seize other options for a majority, and said:

“We will use the next one and a half days to make very clear that this is definitely not a model for our country.”

Antisemitism row and CDU response

Christoph de Vries, parliamentary state secretary in the interior ministry, wrote on X of a 'political breach' and a coalition led by 'the most left-radical party in German federal history'. He listed contacts with Hamas and PFLP circles, criminal clans, expropriation, antisemitism and hostility toward the Bundeswehr and police as the grounds for the Union's alarm. Chancellor Merz, speaking at the Junge Union's Deutschlandtag, said he would not have considered such a development possible a while ago. He accused a radical left party in Berlin of openly inciting against Jews, the police and Israel's right to exist, and has urged the SPD and the Greens to give a clear answer. Alexander Hoffmann, the CSU parliamentary group leader in the Bundestag, told Politico that the Berlin SPD had fallen for the Linke.

Burkard Dregger, the CDU's interior spokesman in the Berlin parliament, told WELT TV that the SPD was submitting to the Linke:

“I almost fear that it is not just a case of being taken in, but that they have submitted to them.”

Dregger said the Linke in parts describes the Hamas massacre in Israel on 7 October 2023 as an 'act of liberation', and that the expropriation push breaks an election promise. He said the CDU would take the planned electoral-law changes to the Federal Constitutional Court and would still be ready to talk with the Social Democrats if the alliance collapses.