Friday 17th December 2021
74.9 percent of the left for it
The way for red-green-red in Berlin is clear
Franziska Giffey can be elected Governing Mayor of Berlin in a few days. As the last of the three coalition parties, members of the left also agree to the joint treaty with a large majority.
Almost three months after the election to the Berlin House of Representatives, nothing stands in the way of the planned red-green-red coalition. After the SPD and the Greens, the left also agreed to the coalition agreement. In a membership decision, 74.9 percent voted for the government program, as the party announced. This means that the SPD state chairwoman and former Federal Family Minister Franziska Giffey can be elected as the new governing mayor and successor to Michael Müller in the House of Representatives on December 21, as planned. Then the ten senators – that’s the name of the ministers in Berlin – are appointed and sworn in.
The SPD, which was the strongest party ahead of the Greens, CDU and Left with 21.4 percent in the September 26 election, has four other Senate members in addition to Giffey. The party plans to announce their names on Monday. Greens and leftists each get three senatorial posts, here all six names are already known, including the top candidate of the Greens Bettina Jarasch (traffic) and the left top candidate Klaus Lederer, who, as in the previous legislature, is to become the Senator for Culture.
The three parties have been ruling Berlin together since 2016. They had been negotiating the new coalition agreement for the next five years for a good five weeks. It was introduced on November 29th. On December 5th and 12th, party congresses of the SPD and the Greens approved the government program with a large majority, now also the left-wing base. The membership decision began on December 3rd. Each of the 8,000 or more members of the Left received a printed version of the coalition agreement and a voting slip. The deadline for voting ended today, Friday, at 1 p.m. It was then counted.
With Giffey, Berlin is getting a governing mayor for the first time – and for the first time since reunification, a city leader from the GDR. However, Giffey is not the first woman to run the city. Because in 1947/1948 the SPD politician Louise Schroeder officiated provisionally as Lord Mayor of post-war Berlin.