Berlin Coalition Talks Point to a Senate of New Faces

With Berlin's three-way coalition talks between Die Linke, the Greens and the SPD taking shape, taz reporting from 22 October 2026 maps out who is likely to sit in the next Senate. Bettina Jarasch — the Greens' top candidate at the 2021 election and outgoing Transport and Environment Senator — is not expected to return to the governing bench. A newly formed four-member party commission will decide which Greens enter a possible red-green-red Senate, effectively overriding the traditional automatic promotion of top candidates. Her co-lead candidate Werner Graf also risks missing out entirely.

For the SPD, Interior Senator Iris Spranger appears best placed to keep her post, both as a signal of continuity to federal authorities and as a clear message to Die Linke that internal security is non-negotiable for the SPD. Franziska Giffey, the current Economics Senator, faces a harder path: her repeated public opposition to red-green-red policies — including her stance on housing socialisation and continued support for extending the A100 motorway — puts her at odds with her own party's 2022 congress position and the preliminary coalition document.

Die Linke's election winner Elif Eralp has set a year-end deadline for a coalition agreement, subject to her party's congress approving negotiations on 31 October. The Left is widely expected to claim the City Development portfolio, with Wenke Christoph — a former State Secretary in that department — as a leading candidate. One possible distribution discussed would give four Senate posts each to Die Linke and the Greens, and two to the SPD, a split that could deliver the Culture portfolio to the Greens as well.