German Left Party Strains in Berlin as Conservatives Eye Steinmeier's Successor
A POLITICO podcast examines the turbulent Left Party (Die Linke) congress in Berlin and the conservative bloc's early contest over the next German president. It also covers Friedrich Merz's tense meeting with CDU local chairs and the dispute over how to deal with the AfD.
A turbulent congress of the Left Party (Die Linke) at Berlin's Dong Xuan Center has become a serious test for the party in the German capital. The topic is discussed by Gordon Repinski and Rasmus Buchsteiner, hosts of POLITICO's Berlin Playbook podcast, alongside other items in German domestic politics.
The Left and a red-green-red coalition
Elif Eralp of the Left Party still believes in a coalition of the Social Democrats, Greens and Left, yet resistance is growing both within the party's own ranks and outside the venue, on the street. The hosts assess whether the party could break apart over its own red lines.
The race for the presidency
In the conservative bloc of the CDU and CSU, a strategic contest has already begun over who should succeed Frank-Walter Steinmeier as German president. Chancellor Friedrich Merz is reportedly looking for a suitable female candidate, while Bavarian premier Markus Söder is playing a tactical power game over Ilse Aigner. The podcast argues that, given difficult parliamentary majorities, the office could soon carry unprecedented political weight.
The CDU base and the AfD
Merz also had to face a restless party base at the first conference of CDU district chairs in five years. The central issue was how to treat the far-right AfD, a question that particularly divides the party's eastern German state associations. The episode also looks at how fragile the much-invoked "firewall", the refusal to cooperate with the AfD, really is away from the main stage in the capital.
The Berlin Playbook podcast is released every morning from 5 a.m.
