Red-Red-Green: Left Dreams

The smallest federal state shows how the times have changed: in three and a half weeks in Bremen is elected, and for the first time there could be a red-red-green coalition in the West thereafter. According to the polls, such a link alliance is a realistic opportunity for SPD mayor Carsten Sieling to remain in power.

Until recently, speculation of this nature had caused a heated argument among the Social Democrats. The fear of a red sock campaign was so great among the comrades that they preferred to forego the option red-red-green.

But of contradiction, even outrage is currently heard in the SPD, nothing. For the party, it's about holding Bremen, after 73 years in power. That you could use the Left Party for that - no problem. On the contrary, many comrades insist that Bremen could become an important step in the rapprochement of the three parties.

Because even at the federal level, the longing for a link alliance is growing. At several levels, politicians from the SPD, the Greens and the Left Party are focusing on relaxation exercises. There are, for example, the parliamentary directors of the parliamentary groups Carsten Schneider (SPD) and Jan Korte (left), who understand each other very well. Left-wing leader Katja Kipping meets regularly with Juso boss Kevin Kühnert. Greens parliamentary leader Anton Hofreiter maintains close contact with members of the SPD and Left. And his party leader Annalena Baerbock recently sat in Berlin on a podium under the title "Hope: center-left".

In addition to Baerbock took Stefan Liebich Platz, member of the Bundestag and for years one of the pioneers on the left for red-red-green alliances. Liebich belongs to a group that has been making a decisive contribution for many years to ensure that the threads of conversation between the three parties are never completely broken: Once it was renamed the Oslo Group, then R2G - now the common code name for red-red-green ,

They met more often, sometimes less often - depending on mood. In the past few months rather rare. But now the center-left supporters can smell a new chance. On May 15, they want to come together again, in an Italian restaurant near the government district. About five representatives of each party are expected. It should be the starting signal for something bigger.

"With Lindner and Kramp-Karrenbauer that's probably not possible"

"I'm now much more optimistic that something is moving," says Liebich. The surveys showed that a majority currently only Jamaica, all other options would be about the same. Meaning: red-red-green or green-red-red is quite tangible. In the current SPON election trend, the three parties come together to just under 45 percent. There is not a lot missing to the majority.

Liebich refers to topics such as the basic SPD pension or climate protection. Social Democrats and Greens would have to wonder which camp they could use to achieve their goals. "With Christian Lindner and Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer that is probably not."

picture alliance / Michael Kappe

Left-wing politician Stefan Liebich: "It is no longer about the battles of the last decades"

But some of his own comrades had repeatedly blocked red-red-green in the past, especially in the radical wing are still raving government skeptics. For SPD and Greens, therefore, the announced retreat of Sahra Wagenknecht as left-wing faction leader had raised hopes. But Liebich warns: "Sahra Wagenknecht has made much much easier and no harder in the recent past, and has opened up for government participation, reaching people we can not reach reformers, and it's an illusion that things are getting better now."

Meetings in a larger round are planned

And yet set Liebich and his colleagues on the end of old dispute patterns. Gone are the days when Green civil rights activists eyed the Left primarily as an SED successor. In which Left and SPD chose each other as the main enemy. "It's no longer about the battles of the last decades," says Liebich.

The next steps are obviously already planned. Meet in larger groups, even with center-left skeptics. According to reports, talks are already under way - with the conservative SPD seamen, for example, or the Wagenknecht supporters on the left. However, such meetings are likely to take place only after the European elections.

Once before there was such a round, about 100 MPs from the SPD, Left and Greens came together in autumn 2016 in the Bundestag. Ex-SPD leader Sigmar Gabriel also looked past. This time it should become more sustainable.

Does the SPD dare?

Only: what are the chances? In fact, 2019 could become a red-red-green year. In Thuringia and Berlin, the three parties are already governing together, in addition to Bremen could this year also come to Brandenburg. The SPD suffers in the grand coalition and bobbed in surveys between 16 and 18 percent. In terms of content, the party moved to the left, with a departure from Hartz IV and a Grundrentenvorstoß that goes beyond the coalition agreement. It would be easier to implement that with the Greens and the Left than with the Union.

DPA

Preparation behind closed doors? Red-Red-Green coalition negotiations in November 2014 in Erfurt, Thuringia

"The central question is whether we want to use the imagination or whether it remains dreams," says SPD man Frank Schwabe. He belongs like Liebich to the R2G round. What matters is whether his party dare to move into a directional election campaign. The chances have increased, Schwabe: "There is still a lot to do, but the zeitgeist is on the left."

In the Greens, the euphoria is braked anyway - also because parts of the party rather put on black and green. The left wing, however, sees good chances for a left alliance. Deputies Agnieszka Brugger and Sven-Christian Kindler also take part in the R2G rounds. "There's new energy," says Brugger. "But better poll numbers alone are not enough, it takes political will and trust, and we're working on that together."

What is new is that the Greens could become the strongest force in the leftist camp, given the polls. In other words, a Greener could become Chancellor.

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