A declaration that broke the pre-talk deal

Exploratory talks between Die Linke, the Greens and the SPD in Berlin were interrupted on Tuesday, 13 October. The three parties had signed a joint declaration against antisemitism the week before the talks began, and it foresaw sanctions for antisemitic incidents within Die Linke, up to expulsion from the parliamentary group. On the Tuesday, Die Linke's group members signed a different text that departed in parts from that agreement. The Greens and SPD in Berlin treated the change as a breach and halted the talks that evening.

The Vanessa Emde question

The dispute centres on Vanessa Emde, a newly elected Die Linke member whose position on Israel drew criticism. After more than three hours of meeting, parliamentary group leaders Elif Eralp and Tobias Schulze announced that all newly elected members had been admitted to the group. According to Der Tagesspiegel, the 44 members present signed a declaration recognising both Israel's right to exist and Palestine's, while one further member was ill. Felix Banaszak, the federal Greens co-chair, told ZDF Morgenmagazin that he had been informed the Left agreed in pre-talks not to admit Emde to the faction. Die Linke denied any such arrangement.

Asked whether such an arrangement existed, Banaszak answered:

I was not sitting at the negotiating table myself, but it is my information.

Reversal and a planned resumption

On 14 October, Steffen Krach of the SPD told RBB's Abendschau that the three parties had agreed the joint declaration stays valid beyond that day and will form part of any coalition agreement. Krach said the Greens and SPD had talked that afternoon before meeting the Left that evening. Eralp said the misunderstandings between the parties had been cleared up and that the leadership of all three parties backs the Berlin agreement.

The leadership of all three parties stands behind the Berlin agreement.

Eralp said talks would resume from 15 October and that the Left party conference would decide, at the end of the exploratory talks, whether to open coalition negotiations. The exploratory paper and the Berlin agreement will form the basis for that decision.

Divisions within the Greens

The federal Greens leadership was irritated by the Berlin branch's decision to resume talks. In an internal message to Bundestag members on 14 October, co-chair Felix Banaszak wrote that the Berlin state association had decided to resume the talks seamlessly, and that responsibility lay with the Berlin lead candidates and state chairs. He said this was coordinated with co-chair Franziska Brantner and parliamentary group leaders Britta Haßelmann and Katharina Dröge. The message stated that the Left had not kept agreed commitments. Nina Stahr, co-chair of the Berlin Greens, told rbb24 Inforadio that the talks were interrupted but not broken off.

We remain at the table and are waiting for the Left party to come back, and on the basis of our joint agreement we can then continue talking.