Berlin’s Social Democrats and Greens have halted exploratory coalition talks with the Left Party, less than a week after the three parties agreed to begin them. According to DW, the break came after Left Party lawmakers signed a statement on antisemitism and Israel that differed from the text all three parties had agreed together.
What happened
On Tuesday evening, the two lead candidates from last month’s state election, Werner Graf of the Greens (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen) and Steffen Krach of the SPD (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, the centre-left Social Democrats), announced in a joint statement that they were interrupting the talks. In German politics, this stage is known as Sondierungsgespräche, or exploratory talks: the parties test whether they have enough in common before formal coalition negotiations begin.
DW reports that the trouble started before the talks did. The Left Party (Die Linke) did well with parts of Berlin’s population, especially young voters and communities with more residents of migrant backgrounds. According to DW, one reason was its unusually stern line on Israel’s wars in Gaza and elsewhere in the Middle East, judged by what the broadcaster calls the often muted standards of German politics. Comments from some of the party’s more outspoken members, and an organised crime boss attending an election-night after-party, raised questions in some newspapers and from the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU). The question was whether centre-left parties could work in a government led by the Left.
To settle the matter, the Greens, SPD and Left drafted a joint statement before the talks began. It covered antisemitism, Israel’s right to exist and keeping a distance from organised crime. DW says the text then drew criticism from within the Left’s own ranks.
On Tuesday, the 44 Left Party members of the new Berlin parliament met and approved a different text, one closer to the party’s earlier internal position papers. DW quotes it as follows: “We stand by Israel’s right to exist and for equal rights for all people in Israel. Equally we stand by Palestine’s right to exist and for equal rights for all people in Palestine.” According to DW, the new version drops the joint text’s description of Israel’s right to exist as “non-negotiable”. It also leaves out the list of possible sanctions for breaches, which in the joint text could go as far as expulsion from the party.
“We have taken note that the Left Party have reached a different arrangement within their own party,” Graf and Krach said in their statement. They added: “This means that at this point we have to interrupt the coalition negotiations, so as to evaluate whether or not our agreement from last week still stands.”
Why it matters if you live in Germany
If you live in Berlin, this decides who governs the city-state. DW reports that the Left Party came first in last month’s close election with just under 26% of the vote. The Greens won just over 14% and the SPD just over 12%. Together, the three left-leaning parties would hold a slim majority in the city’s parliament, the Abgeordnetenhaus (Berlin’s state legislature).
The other option, according to DW, is for the SPD and Greens to form a government with the CDU. DW puts the CDU in second place on 18.8%, well behind the Left. The CDU argues that the SPD and Greens should negotiate with it instead. DW notes that such a coalition would have an even more fragile majority, with strong opposition from the far-right AfD (Alternative für Deutschland) on one side and the Left on the other.
The dispute has also reached federal politics. DW reports that Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the allegations against the Left Party cannot be “dismissed with a piece of paper.” DW adds that the party’s state lawmakers now appear to have disowned that piece of paper anyway.
For international residents, the story also shows how heavily questions about antisemitism and Israel weigh in German coalition-building. A party’s written commitments on these issues can decide whether others will govern with it at all. For Berlin’s young voters and communities with migrant backgrounds, where DW says the Left did especially well, the outcome will show whether the party they backed can turn its result into a role in the city’s government.
What to watch next
The SPD and Greens have not ended talks with the Left for good. “We expect the Left Party to make clear to us to what extent they take the agreements they made seriously and intend to implement them,” Graf and Krach wrote. The next step depends on how the Left Party answers that demand and whether it returns to the jointly agreed text.
If the Left does not give the assurances the SPD and Greens want, attention will turn to the CDU, which is already asking them to negotiate. DW’s reporting does not give a timetable for either path. Readers in Berlin should follow the party leaderships’ statements in the coming days to see whether the exploratory talks restart or whether a different coalition starts to form.
Source: DW
Sources
- DW: Germany news: Left-leaning Berlin coalition talks break down, accessed 15 October 2026
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