SPD and Greens pause Berlin coalition talks after Left admits Vanessa Emde

Left admits a contested member

On Tuesday, 13 October, the Left group in the Berlin House of Representatives admitted Vanessa Emde at its constituent session in the afternoon, according to N-tv and Handelsblatt. Emde won the Neukölln constituency directly in the election of 20 September, with more than 46 percent of the first votes, according to DIE WELT. Earlier reports had said that Left, Greens and SPD had agreed in their preliminary talks not to admit her, and Frankfurter Allgemeine reports that the SPD had informally demanded her exclusion. Frankfurter Allgemeine describes Emde as a Trotskyist who belongs to the Left working group "Palästinasolidarität" and says she has expressed the view that states have no right to exist. N-tv reports that she is seen within the Berlin Left as especially critical of Israel, and that critics accuse her of not clearly committing to Israel's right to exist.

A declaration against antisemitism

All 44 members present at the session signed a declaration committing the faction to fighting antisemitism, protecting Jewish life and Israel's right to exist, Co-faction leader Tobias Schulze said, according to N-tv. The signatories also pledge to follow the party's resolutions on these topics in their work as MPs. Frankfurter Allgemeine notes that the declaration contains no commitment to the preliminary negotiating paper of the three parties. The text rejects Hamas and other Islamist terror groups and says antisemitic hate slogans, endorsement of Hamas terror and calls for Israel's annihilation must be stopped. It also says that showing sympathy for the "population of a war zone" and demonstrating for peace must remain possible, and that the Left stands for a just peace in Israel and Palestine. Frankfurter Allgemeine adds that the preliminary paper of the three parties describes Israel's right to exist as "unverhandelbar", meaning non-negotiable.

Talks interrupted and the mechanism

Greens and SPD interrupted their exploratory talks with the Left on Tuesday, 13 October, in the evening, citing a statement in which both parties said they had taken note that the Left had reached other arrangements in its faction, as reported by Berliner Zeitung. Left, Greens and SPD had agreed on Thursday, 8 October, to begin formal exploratory talks, with a joint agreement on dealing with antisemitism as the precondition. DIE WELT reports that under that agreement, if a member of one of the three factions makes antisemitic statements, three external experts decide how serious the offence is before the factions seek the member's exclusion. N-tv reports that sanctions up to exclusion from the faction are being considered. Berliner Zeitung says it was not clear from the first AFP report whether the Emde decision directly led to the interruption.

Election result and open questions

The Left won 25.7 percent in the election for the House of Representatives, and together with Greens and SPD it holds 91 of the 153 seats in the new parliament, a clear majority, according to Berliner Zeitung. N-tv reports that the Left backs a red-green-red coalition and has Elif Eralp as its lead candidate. Berliner Zeitung describes the interruption as a considerable setback for the government formation after the 20 September election. Berliner Zeitung reports that it was not yet known whether or when the talks would resume.