Alexander Hoffmann, the head of the CSU regional group, issued a stern warning against a potential coalition with The Left party in Berlin, following a recent post by Berlin MP Vanessa Emde of the SPD and Greens.
Hoffmann heavily criticized The Left, stating that “new deviations from their principles are appearing daily.” He claimed that promises were made and then withdrawn, calling the initial procedures “absurd” and the current handling a “joke.” According to the CSU politician, the group was operating in a self-contained circle that created no accountability. He insisted that such figures must be “consistently excluded.”
Furthermore, Hoffmann drew a parallel between the handling of right-wing extremism within a party and the treatment of antisemitism within The Left. He stated that if the response to right-wing extremism mirrored the response to antisemitism in the Left, it would be “completely unacceptable.” He maintained that a zero-tolerance stance must apply to antisemitism and warned the SPD and Greens: “Keep away from Red-Green-Red in Berlin.” He also noted that such an alliance would put strain on the existing black-red coalition, citing the clear agreements regarding dealing with “the margins” found in the coalition contract.
Emde’s actions, which prompted Hoffmann’s remarks, stemmed from an original Instagram post where she declared she had involuntarily become the “protagonist of a huge smear campaign” in recent weeks. She referenced a video she posted months ago that paraphrased what she termed a “völkerrechtlichen No-Brainer,” specifically stating: “There is no right to existence for states-people have a right to exist.”
She also defended a separate statement in which she asserted: “The demand for a democratic one-state solution with equal rights for all people regardless of their ethnic and religious affiliation is a legitimate political demand and must not be criminalized.”
Emde affirmed her commitment to her stance, stating emphatically that she would not retract any of those statements, regardless of media hostility, threats of party expulsion, or bureaucratic maneuvering. Her post concluded with the phrase: “Freedom for Palestine.”
