Emde's video and the admission dispute

On Thursday evening, 15 October, Vanessa Emde, a Linke member of the Berlin House of Representatives who won her Neukölln constituency directly with 46% of the vote, posted a roughly three-minute Instagram video. In it she repeated statements on Israel that have drawn criticism and that were the basis of SPD and Greens demands to keep her out of the Linke parliamentary group. She said there is no right of existence for states, only for people, and described a democratic one-state solution with equal rights for all as legitimate. She called her admission to the group a small gain of ground against Germany's Staatsräson, the doctrine that Israel's security is part of the country's reasons of state.

Emde pointed to Angela Merkel's March 2008 speech to the Knesset, in which the then chancellor described Israel's security as part of Germany's Staatsräson. Emde framed her inclusion in the faction as a win against that principle. Asked about her position, she kept to her line.

“I stand by my statements and I am not taking back a single one of them.”

Critics accuse her of not standing behind Israel's right to exist. Emde answered that the sentence at the centre of the dispute is a basic point of international law.

Coalition talks resume

On Tuesday, 13 October, the Linke parliamentary group admitted Emde despite earlier agreements that she would not be taken in, and SPD and Greens interrupted the exploratory talks. The three parties agreed on Wednesday, 14 October, to continue and reconvened on Thursday after a one-day pause. On Friday morning, negotiating teams with party leadership representatives met at the Haus der Statistik in Berlin-Mitte. SPD faction and state chair Steffen Krach said:

“We have several topics on the agenda.”

Krach declined to answer questions about Emde. He said his position was known and that the Linke faction leadership had to resolve the matter, though he left open what exactly he meant. The Linke faction board planned to discuss Emde's Instagram posts at midday on Friday. The exploratory talks were expected to conclude by Sunday evening, 18 October.

Housing and budget hurdles

Several issues have been discussed for a long time without agreement. The socialisation of large residential property holdings, which the Linke champions, remains one of the heavy items on the table. The future state budget is the other, as looming billion-euro gaps raise the question of how many election promises can be financed.

The faction declaration

At its constituent session on Tuesday, the Linke group affirmed its fight against antisemitism, the protection of Jewish life and Israel's right to exist, and all members signed a declaration to that effect. Emde criticised the document for naming party resolutions selectively. She said it omitted a resolution from a June party congress that for the first time officially described Israel's conduct in the Gaza war as genocide. The parties had made a commitment against antisemitism a precondition for starting the exploratory talks, and the declaration departs from that agreement on important points.

Reactions

At the time of reporting, Emde had not responded to press inquiries about how the video affects the talks. Reader comments under a Focus report split along familiar lines. One group demanded that SPD and Greens end talks with the Linke, another defended the one-state position as a debatable view protected by free speech, and a third focused on whether Berlin can be governed at all.