Wednesday, December 1st, 2021
Ex-left boss in state politics
Kipping is supposed to be the Senator for Social Affairs in Berlin
The red-green-red government alliance in Berlin is taking shape: Katja Kipping, Federal MP and former party leader of the Left, is to become Senator for Labor and Social Affairs. She follows Elke Breitenbach, who does not want to compete again.
The former federal chairman of the Left, Katja Kipping, is to become the new Senator for Social Affairs in Berlin. This was announced by Berlin’s left-wing chairwoman Katina Schubert. “I am pleased that I am able to propose Katja Kipping, one of the most prominent social politicians in our party and in Germany as the successor to Elke Breitenbach,” said Schubert. Breitenbach announced on Tuesday evening that she would not run again as senator.
Kipping, who comes from Dresden, has been in the Bundestag since 2005 and was federal chairman of the Left together with Bernd Riexinger from 2012 to 2021. The 43-year-old lives in Berlin and managed to get back into parliament in the election in September via the Saxon state list. Kipping wrote on Twitter that Breitenbach had done “great things” as a senator. “To be able to build on that would be both an honor and a joy for me.” At the same time, she pointed out that the party members must first decide whether to join the government.
The SPD, the Greens and the Left have been ruling together in Berlin since 2016. Now they want to renew their alliance, last Monday they presented the coalition agreement for a further five years. In the case of the SPD and the Greens, party congresses still have to approve the government program, in the case of the Left, the members. “If our members decide to join the government, our senators will be officially nominated by the committees on December 20,” said Schubert.
In the election for the House of Representatives on September 26, the SPD became the strongest force ahead of the strengthened Greens as well as the CDU and the left, despite its historically worst result of 21.4 percent. After a lengthy exploratory process in which the Berlin parties also explored other alliance options, the three previous partners finally began coalition negotiations.
Representatives of the three parties and the respective parliamentary groups presented the approximately 150 pages long on Monday Coalition agreement with the title “Future Capital Berlin” before. The subtitle is “Social. Ecological. Diverse. Economically strong”. Among other things, the contract provides for the construction of 200,000 apartments, more climate protection, video surveillance of crime-prone locations and the expansion of local public transport. In addition, the police and the judiciary are to be given more staff, and teachers are to be made civil servants again.