Overview
- The Left, Greens and SPD have started formal coalition negotiations after the Left’s party delegates approved talks, moving the city toward a possible Left-led Senate under Elif Eralp.
- The central policy fight is the Left’s proposal to 'vergesellschaften' roughly 160,000 apartments, meaning moving large corporate-owned flats into public ownership with compensation.
- Chancellor Friedrich Merz has said the federal government will seek to stop expropriations by law, creating a likely legal and political clash between Berlin and the federal government.
- The parties agreed to include a joint declaration against antisemitism and to protect Jewish life in the coalition text as part of efforts to resolve internal disputes in the Left.
- Negotiations are being run by an umbrella steering group and specialist working groups with a December target for a coalition contract that must then be approved by party members or congresses; Eralp has said she will not give up and has received police protection for security concerns.