The leadership of the Linke group in the Berlin House of Representatives has not yet settled how to handle Vanessa Emde, whose criticism of Israel has repeatedly sparked controversy. The leadership met in a digital session on Tuesday, 20 October, but Emde, who had been invited, reported herself sick and did not take part. A spokesperson for the group told the German Press Agency that the leadership had invited her again to the next session, which falls on the following Tuesday. The group plans to continue its deliberations in the week of 26 October. Emde, who comes from Düsseldorf, entered the Berlin House of Representatives for the first time in the 20 September election, after campaigning mainly on Palestine solidarity.
During the campaign Emde argued that states have no right to exist, and that only people do. On Thursday, 15 October, she repeated that position in an Instagram video. In it she stood by her statements and said she was retracting none of them.
“I stand by my statements, and I am not retracting a single one of them.”
The Linke leadership then said it no longer saw a basis for working with her, and her exclusion from the group is now a possibility. Emde has also criticised a declaration against antisemitism that all members of the Linke group, herself included, had signed shortly beforehand. That declaration commits its signatories, among other things, to Israel's right to exist.
Party chair Ines Schwerdtner defended Emde's position on the ntv programme Pinar Atalay, arguing that it is legitimate under international law. She put it this way on air:
“This opinion is absolutely legitimate. Under international law it is correct that states have no right to exist.”
Schwerdtner added that she does not share the view herself and that the party's position differs. The Linke, she said, stands for Israel's right to exist as well as Palestine's, because that is the basis for security in the Middle East. She also responded to Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who said on Saturday, 17 October, at the Junge Union's Deutschlandtag that a government in Berlin led by the Linke was not permissible to protect democracy. Schwerdtner called his stance a diversion from his own social policy, and said it was "complete madness" that he would take that line while CDU members in Saxony-Anhalt had reportedly helped elect an AfD state parliament president.
In the 20 September Berlin election the Linke took 25.7% of the vote, ahead of the CDU on 18.8%, the AfD on 16.3%, the Greens on 14.3% and the SPD on 12.1%, the SPD's worst result on record. The CDU and SPD coalition has lost its majority, and the Linke, Greens and SPD are now trying to form a red-green-red government. An exploratory paper presented on Saturday, 17 October, brought the three parties together after sometimes laborious talks. Linke parliamentary group leader Elif Eralp would become the party's first governing mayor in Berlin if the coalition succeeds. The antisemitism debate, fuelled by several incidents within the Linke, complicated those talks from the start, and a Berlin alliance against antisemitism urged the Greens and SPD not to form a coalition.
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The Berlin Linke group leadership reached no decision on Vanessa Emde on 20 October after she reported herself sick and skipped a digital session. Deliberations are set to resume in the week of 26 October.
AI text based on reports by Focus, Der Tagesspiegel, Spiegel Online and other publishers. Published .