Berlin’s FDP parliamentary group leader Sebastian Czaja considers a coalition with the CDU and SPD to be realistic after the repeat election on February 12. He rejected a government alliance with the Greens.
“We have a situation in which the CDU is clearly ahead. In this respect, the question arises for us, who is the third on the side of black and yellow, and that would be the SPD for us,” said Czaja of the German Press Agency. “I can’t imagine how it should work with the Greens, who want expropriations and we don’t, who want a city toll and we don’t, who want a completely car-free city center and we don’t.”
The goal of the Berlin FDP is to maintain the 2021 election result or, if possible, to expand it. In the election to the House of Representatives, the Liberals received 7.1 percent of the second votes and are the smallest parliamentary group with twelve seats. Polls in recent weeks saw the CDU ahead of the Greens and SPD and the FDP below the 2021 value.
“Only with a strong FDP in parliament can you prevent a left-wing coalition from being built against the CDU,” said Czaja. “It seems as if the CDU could be at the top on election night. But I experienced in Bremen in 2019 that that doesn’t mean that you’re going to appoint the head of government.”
Housing alliance did not achieve goals
The FDP is needed to actually enable a political change and to get a reform coalition off the ground that doesn’t seek the lowest common denominator, but faces the major challenges, said the FDP parliamentary group leader, who is leading his party as the top candidate in the election campaign leads. “These are not only pending in the modernization of administration, but also, for example, in the question of how we can accelerate housing construction.”
The left is helping rents skyrocket in this city.
Sebastian Czaja, FDP parliamentary group leader in the Berlin House of Representatives
The housing alliance with the participation of associations and companies from the real estate industry did not achieve its goals. “I experience that the social democrats in the coalition are pretty lonely when it comes to accelerating new housing construction.
Because we don’t have a common position on how we want to create living space, we have a lot of losses,” said Czaja. “The perverse thing is that the left is helping rents to skyrocket in this city and wanting to mobilize voters.”
“We are in a situation that no one could have foreseen due to the war of aggression and the price increases, especially in the construction industry,” Czaja admitted. “But if we hadn’t lost so much time in the five years leading up to February 24th, how far could we have come. We urgently need 200,000 new homes. If something doesn’t work, then continue to lose yourself in ideological trench warfare in the state government.” (dpa)
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