Berlin –
Members of the party, led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz, barely approved a local coalition agreement in Berlin with Germany’s main centre-right opposition.
The Berlin branch of the Social Democratic Party said on Sunday that 54.3% of its members who voted in a poll supported the deal. The convention of the center-right Christian Democratic Union is expected to approve it on Monday, the final step before Christian Democrat Kai Wegner is elected mayor by the state legislature.
The expected change of government follows February’s national elections, which necessitated a re-election after the last poll in 2021 had serious problems. The CDU emerged as the largest party, making big profits as all three of his parties in Berlin’s left-wing government lost supporters. .
Outgoing mayor Franziska Giffey’s center-left Social Democrats have led Berlin since 2001. Many Berliners are also annoyed by rising housing costs and, by German standards, Berlin’s dysfunctional bureaucracy in recent years.
February elections left the outgoing government with a majority in the legislature.The Social Democrats came in second, with just 53 votes ahead of their biggest partner, the environmentalist Green Party.
But former federal minister Ms Giffey, who took over as mayor in December 2021, said voters’ hoped-for re-election for a new coalition government was not possible and her party risks worsening in the next election. said.
The decision to become a junior partner of the CDU drew considerable criticism within the party. Giffey said he was “extremely relieved” by the outcome of the vote and promised to take the concerns of opponents seriously.
Giffey is expected to take up a ministerial post under Wegner. The next state ballot is scheduled for his late 2026.
At the national level, Scholz leads the three-party coalition of the Social Democrats, the Green Party and the business-oriented Liberal Democrats. The CDU leads the opposition. Germany’s 16 states have governments from diverse political backgrounds with significant powers in many policy areas.
