Berlin SPD leader hits back at Chancellor Merz over coalition talks

In an interview widely cited on 18 October 2026, Berlin SPD chair Steffen Krach pushes back against Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) after Merz, speaking at the Young Union conference in Bonn, called for the Berlin exploratory talks between Left, Greens and SPD to be broken off, saying parties of the democratic centre should not negotiate with 'left radicals'. Krach replied that Merz 'should get his own government under control' before criticising others. North Rhine-Westphalia's state chancellery chief Nathanael Liminski demanded 'political purges' inside the Left; Baden-Württemberg's Green minister Cem Özdemir called Berlin's Left a 'special case' on antisemitism. Left co-chair Ines Schwerdtner rejected the accusations as 'disgusting'. The row played out as the Berlin partners presented their 'Mehr gemeinsam, mehr Berlin' paper. The exchange underlined how closely the federal CDU-led government is watching the first red-green-red state government in the capital.