Berlin’s faction and state leader Raed Saleh does not rule out the opposition role for the SPD. “The situation is complicated for everyone involved,” he told the Berliner Morgenpost. He cannot yet say where the exploratory talks that started on Friday are going.
Everything is possible – including the opposition. “I can’t rule anything out at the moment,” Saleh said. “I wouldn’t say, like a big social democrat, that the opposition is rubbish.” SPD chairman Franz Müntefering said at a party conference in 2004: “The opposition is rubbish. Let the others do it – we want to rule.”
According to Saleh, there are also voices in the Berlin SPD that call for going into the opposition and then showing it to the governing parties. The SPD head of state, who heads the SPD’s exploratory team together with the governing mayor Franziska Giffey, said that it was not just about that. Because 18.4 percent of Berliners would not have voted for the SPD, so that they would now go into the opposition.
“They want us to represent their interests and defend free education. That we are committed to extending the rent moratorium at the state-owned housing companies beyond 2023, that we ensure the ban on misappropriation and the minimum wage,” said Saleh. “We also made campaign promises.”
His party will therefore explore with all democratic parties, which could well take weeks. “You have to give such conversations space, argue well and weigh them up. It’s about shaping the reality of life for four million people in our city.”
“The next few years will be tough in Berlin. The population is increasing,” Saleh warned. “The number of refugees from Ukraine and other countries is increasing, the consequences of inflation are coming to a head.”
There will be even tougher competition for land and less money will be available. That is why the exploratory talks are being conducted so seriously. The next meeting of the CDU with the SPD is already planned for Monday. On Wednesday, the Christian Democrats want to continue talking to the Greens.
