Red-Green-Red Coalition Talks Open in Berlin

Coalition negotiations between Die Linke, the Greens and the SPD got under way on Monday at the Berlin House of Representatives, with delegations from all three parties convening at 10 a.m. Among the key figures taking part were Linke top candidate Elif Eralp, SPD state chair Steffen Krach and Green leading candidate Werner Graf. Die Linke was the last of the three parties to approve the start of talks, with a state party conference voting by an overwhelming majority in favour on Saturday. The SPD and Greens had already given their approval before that. The negotiations are built on a jointly drafted exploratory paper that the three parties drew up together. Among the items on the agenda is a proposal for the socialisation of housing stocks held by large real-estate corporations in Berlin.