Berlin – The heads of Red-Green-Red in Berlin want to work more closely together in the next five years, parties, parliamentary groups and members of the Senate should coordinate more closely. They want to give themselves a “code of good cooperation”. It was said on Friday afternoon after the second round of top negotiators. The coalition agreement should continue to be ready on November 24th, as planned, so that it can then be approved by the committees of the three parties. The governing mayor will be elected shortly before Christmas.
Coalition agreements usually have a preamble, a groundbreaking introduction, something like a studbook, in which it is said what the agreement was agreed upon, how one wants to work together. Such preambles are naturally different, sometimes enthusiastic, sometimes prosaic. The first red-red-green alliance in 2016 wrote in its studbook that they wanted to “invest in the future. Justice, tolerance, solidarity, ecological responsibility, progress – this orientation forms the compass for our common policy ”. There was also talk of “cosmopolitanism, respect for the diversity of lifestyles and a willingness to innovate”. They want to preserve and strengthen all of this and make everything better and more beautiful in general. Big words.
Big words often have the problem that they are sometimes difficult to keep in mind in everyday life. This has been demonstrated at a number of points over the past five years. In many areas of housing and building policy, transport policy, but also social and domestic policy, the coalition parties have argued. And last but not least, the failed rent cap was a major failure.
Now, five years later, the top representatives of the same parties sound different, sober. It is said that five principles have been agreed. They want a sustainable, social, ecological city with a strong economy. But above all there should be the image of a service city that works. The citizens should feel this as soon as they come into contact with the administration. That is the most important measure of success.
With the designated governing mayor Franziska Giffey (SPD) it sounds like this: “We have to find a good balance for the different interests in the city. And we have to carry the priorities through the next five years. ”To ensure that, you have to keep questioning yourself.
Franziska Giffey has easy talk. As district mayor of Neukölln, she was not involved in the 2016 negotiations.
Bettina Jarasch, top woman of the Greens, is completely different. “We wanted so much back then,” she says today, in 2016 she was jointly responsible as party leader. “Now it’s about concentrating on what we can really achieve.” “Good professionalism” is required. Jarasch has seldom sounded so distant from her own set of wishes.
But what should Klaus Lederer say first? He was even involved in Red-Red-Green for five years, as deputy head of government and cultural senator even at the forefront. Now Lederer says that five years ago they “underestimated the troubles of the plain”. There was such a great spirit of optimism. And today? Today he knows that it is wise if “new formulas for working together right from the start”.
Berlin CDU calls for “common sense” and “an end to left ideology”
The new sober Red-Green-Reds can rely on one thing just as much as the – possibly – more euphoric Red-Red-Greens did before: on the criticism of the opposition. It has remained the same and has long since passed a judgment.
With a view to the coalition negotiations, Berlin’s CDU is calling for “real solutions” to the city’s problems instead of “lazy compromises”. Last but not least, a balanced budget is necessary without leaving future generations with a mountain of debt, said CDU state chairman Kai Wegner on Friday. “The question of expropriation must now be cleared up instead of hovering over the housing market like a sword of Damocles for years,” he continued.
Berlin expects an end to left ideology from the coalition negotiations, Wegner said. “After five years of red-red-green, common sense must finally find its way into Berlin’s government.”
Kai Wegner may even mean something similar to Franziska Giffey when she says: “We don’t always need new blooming dreams. Rather, we need attitude, leadership, continuity and stability. “
This text appeared in the weekend edition of the Berliner Zeitung – every Saturday at the kiosk or here as a subscription.
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