By Gunnar Schupelius
The Berlin SPD has brought in the worst election result of all time. No wonder, because no one knows what they will get if they vote for this party. It has two faces, says Gunnar Schupelius.
In the front row, she shows us Governing Mayor Giffey, who seems reasonable, who bases her decisions less on ideology and more on necessity. The SPD senators Spranger (internal affairs), Geisel (construction), Schwarz (economy) and Busse (school) made the same impression.
But behind it rumbles a base that undoes the work of the front row. Even after the last election on September 26, 2021, it was an open secret that Giffey was considering a coalition with the FDP and even with the CDU.
She had extensive discussions with the two top candidates, Sebastian Czaja and Kai Wegner. But she didn’t even get the green light from her own ranks to work with the FDP.
To be more precise, it was and is the district associations in Mitte, Tempelhof-Schoeneberg and Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, which have a large number of members, who want to coalition with the Greens and the Left. Weaker district associations such as Treptow-Köpenick are against this coalition, especially with the left.
Raed Saleh, the powerful man of the Berlin SPD, gave in, of all people, who led a coalition with the CDU between 2011 and 2016.
And even worse: the SPD basis drove Giffey deliberately and brutally into the parade when the party congress voted against the further construction of the A 100 city motorway and for the expropriation of housing companies. That was to be seen as a vote against Giffey, who had advocated further construction and against expropriations.
After yesterday’s re-election, the picture is the same: the left-wing majority at the SPD base will not allow a coalition with the CDU, and therefore no change in policy either. So the SPD will again chain itself to the Greens and the Left and thus also to their ideology.
But that will further shrink the party, it will continue to lose voters. This tendency was dramatically reflected yesterday in the result of the first votes: the constituencies in almost all outskirts went to the CDU, in the city center the Greens were ahead. Hardly any Social Democratic direct candidate was able to conquer his constituency.
This election showed that the SPD cannot win in the left block with the Greens and the Left. If she were then to place herself under a Green Governing Mayor Jarasch, her end as a leading political force would be sealed. It could dissolve and become part of the Left or the Greens. You wouldn’t notice.
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