Allies of Raed Saleh form new current within Berlin SPD

A new party current has formed in the Berlin SPD around Raed Saleh, the former chair of the party's parliamentary group. According to the Tagesspiegel, the group came together on Thursday. Saleh stepped down as parliamentary group leader about a month and a half earlier. Now he and people in his circle are founding a new grouping, and they point to numerous successes achieved by Saleh.

The current calls itself "Stellwerk. Sozialdemokrat*innen für eine linke, sozial gerechte Politik", which translates roughly as "Signal box. Social democrats for a left-leaning, socially just politics". Around 40 Berlin SPD members have signed a political statement of self-understanding, known in German as a "Selbstverständnis".

The Tagesspiegel's headline asks whether Raed Saleh is working on a comeback. The material available does not answer that question or say what role, if any, Saleh will have in the new group. It also gives no further details about the group's content or aims beyond its name and the roughly 40 signatories.

The article was published on 6 November 2026 and is credited to Anna Thewalt and Daniel Böldt.