Franziska Giffey tried very hard on Thursday to hide the disappointment about her defeat.

In the end, there were “more intersections” with the Greens and the Left Party, said the SPD politician, who wants to become the governing mayor of the capital.

Therefore, negotiations will now only continue with these two partners.

Markus Wehner

Political correspondent in Berlin.

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Giffey had initially spoken of her preference for a traffic light coalition, she had justified this with the foreseeable development in the federal government. During the election campaign, she had openly shown her skepticism towards the previously ruling alliance of the SPD, the Greens and the Left, relying on a strong economy and tougher domestic politics. She was particularly skeptical of the left and described the expropriation policy they are striving for as the “red line”. But apparently the top candidate of the SPD could not prevail with her bourgeois-liberal course.

On Friday, the SPD will only meet with the Greens and the left for a final exploratory discussion, said Giffey on Thursday at a performance with co-chairman Raed Saleh.

At the end of the conversation there should be a joint exploratory paper.

If that is done, the way will be free for coalition negotiations, which could begin in the middle of next week after an approving vote of the party committees.

These should then be completed by the end of November.

If everything goes according to plan, an SPD party conference on December 5 could conclude a coalition agreement and Giffey could be elected mayor before Christmas, said the SPD top candidate.

It didn't sound like she should change her mind again.

Giffey under pressure twice

Giffey had initially pushed through parallel explorations with the Greens and FDP on the one hand and the Greens and Left Party on the other.

But she came under double pressure: on the one hand, from her own party, which doesn't think much of the FDP.

Half of twelve Berlin district associations had already spoken out in favor of a continuation of the coalition with the Greens and the Left Party.

In addition, the Berlin Greens, who are much more left-wing than the Federal Greens, absolutely wanted a coalition with the Left Party;

unlike in the federal government, the Greens in the capital have a hard time finding anything sympathetic about the FDP.

The green top candidate Bettina Jarasch kept the peace in her own party by insisting on a coalition with the left.

"I am very happy that we are a big step further," said Jarasch on Thursday.

Jarasch called the planned alliance of the SPD, the Greens and the Left an “eco-social coalition” that wanted to work together “loyally, cooperatively and reliably”.

However, that had not worked with the previous coalition under the ruling mayor Michael Müller (SPD).

Left are happy

The Left Party was also pleased. The left state chairman Katina Schubert announced that they wanted to continue the “necessary investment offensive” and “of course the referendum” on the expropriation of private real estate companies. Giffey, on the other hand, said it was agreed that “a legal review” would be needed before action could be taken on this issue. She faced doubts about her ability to assert herself. "The SPD won this election, it also has the right to lead this coalition," she said.

The FDP and CDU sharply criticized the decision.

The FDP state chairman Christoph Meyer said that the SPD had "betrayed the basis of their election campaign and gambled away the chance for a real restart.

The CDU state chairman Kai Wegner made a similar statement: Instead of a restart, Berlin is threatened with “going on and coming to a standstill”.

The alleged new course of the SPD was "apparently a mere election campaign maneuver," said Wegner.

Giffey has "a serious credibility problem" by opting for red-green-red.

In the election on September 26, the SPD had its worst result to date, but was ahead of the Greens with 21.4 percent, who were able to increase to 18.9 percent.

The left had 14.1 percent.

The CDU came to 18 and the FDP to 7.1 percent, the AfD to eight percent.

Objection to election results

The election to the House of Representatives and the district representatives, which took place at the same time as the federal election, had led to numerous mishaps in Berlin. Ballot papers were run out in polling stations or false ballot papers were delivered. Many citizens were only able to vote after 6 p.m. because of the long queues.

The regional election management announced on Thursday an objection to the election results at the Berlin Constitutional Court. In two constituencies there have been violations of the law that could affect the distribution of mandates, said state returning officer Petra Michaelis. These are constituencies in Berlin-Charlottenburg and in Marzahn-Hellersdorf, in which there were very narrow results. Should there be a new election in the two constituencies, 62,000 eligible voters would have to vote again, which corresponds to 2.5 percent of all eligible voters.

Overall, according to the state return officer, there were irregularities in 207 of 2,257 polling stations.

"That is a number that must scare and annoy us all," said Michaelis, who after harsh criticism asked the Senate to release her from her position and had her last working day in this position on Thursday.

Due to missing or incorrectly delivered ballot papers, the election was temporarily interrupted in 78 polling stations - sometimes for up to two hours.

1173 polling stations were open longer than 6 p.m. because voters wanted to cast their votes.

In individual cases, voting was held until shortly before 9 p.m.

The Berlin AfD and the satire party Die Party have already announced an objection to the Berlin election.