Principles on the Bargaining Table

German politics has long mastered the art of solemn commemoration. Every autumn, politicians deliver pious speeches warning against the dark ghosts of the past, solemnly reciting ritualistic slogans meant to demonstrate democratic virtue. Yet when actual power in Berlin hangs in the balance, these high-minded moral postures dissolve with remarkable speed.

Following recent state elections, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) is openly weighing coalition negotiations with Die Linke, which secured 25.7 percent of the vote. The campaign of the post-communist party was hardly subtle. Candidates and party figures systematically targeted Berlin's estimated 400,000 Muslim residents—including a Palestinian diaspora community of 45,000—by framing the Middle Eastern conflict in aggressive domestic terms. Campaign events featured anti-Israel chants, calls for a "Wahl-Intifada" on social media, and accusations of genocide against the Jewish state. More than half of the capital's Muslim voters cast their ballots for Die Linke accordingly.

Rather than drawing a clear boundary, senior SPD officials are displaying a masterclass in political pragmatism. Party co-leader Bärbel Bas conceded that cooperating with a party acting antisemitic in significant parts was difficult, yet explicitly refrained from ruling out an alliance. Party general secretary Tim Klüssendorf took ambiguity even further, suggesting that lip-service commitments against antisemitism from Die Linke’s lead candidate, Elif Eralp, might be sufficient to clear the path into the Red City Hall.

This readiness to overlook radical rhetoric is not an isolated phenomenon within Social Democratic history. The party maintains a long-standing pattern of questionable international ties, from partnerships with Fatah under the umbrella of progressive alliances to the infamous press conference where former Chancellor Olaf Scholz stood silently beside Mahmoud Abbas as the Palestinian leader claimed Israel had committed fifty holocausts.

For Berlin’s Jewish community, the prospective government alliance is a chilling signal. Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, described the electoral outcome as deeply alarming, while Israeli Ambassador Ron Prosor warned of an immediate existential threat to Jewish life in the city. Yet for an SPD suffering continuous electoral erosion across the country, the urge to remain in executive government routinely triumphs over declared convictions. When political survival demands a majority, moral rhetoric is the first casualty.

Written by Thomas Nussbaumer thomas.nussbaumer@alpineweekly.com