Germany news: Left-leaning Berlin coalition talks break down

Berlin's SPD and Greens stop regional parliament coalition talks with the Left Party, disappointed with its pledges on Israel and organized crime

They did leave the door open to potentially restart the exploratory talks, however

International Monetary Fund raises Germany's 2026 growth forecast to 1.3%, up from just 0.7% in July

Investment in infrastructure and defense, stronger exports and demand linked to artificial intelligence are helping the recovery

Germany's 2026 wine harvest is expected to be around 20% below the ten-year average

Here is a roundup of top stories from and about Germany on Tuesday, October 13, 2026:

The breakdown in the exploratory talks can be traced back to concerns about the often highly critical stance on Israel adopted by some members of the Left Party , coupled with criticism of the appearance of a figure linked to organized crime at an election night party.

The Left scored well with parts of Berlin's population, not least the young and communities with more people of migrant backgrounds, with an unusually stern line on Israeli wars in Gaza and elsewhere in the Middle East by the often muted standards of German politics.

But comments from its more outspoken members and controversies like an organized crime boss attending an election-night after-party led to questions, particularly in some newspapers and from the conservative Christian Democrats, about whether center-left parties could work under the Left's leadership.

In a bid to settle this, the Greens, SPD and Left drafted a joint statement on antisemitism, Israel's right to exist and maintaining a distance from organized crime before starting their talks.

But the text subsequently faced criticism from within the Left's own ranks.

On Tuesday, as 44 Left Party members of the new Berlin parliament met, they instead signed off on a different text more closely aligned to the party's past internal position papers.

"We stand by Israel's right to exist and for equal rights for all people in Israel. Equally we stand by Palestine's right to exist and for equal rights for all people in Palestine," the Left Party's text read.

Among other things, this omits a reference in the joint text to Israel's right to exist being "non-negotiable," and to listing potential sanctions for transgressions potentially extending as far as being ejected from the party.

The CDU, which emerged as the second-largest party in the vote, well adrift of the Left on 18.8%, argue that the SPD and Greens should negotiate a coalition government with them instead.

Chancellor Merz had also weighed into the discussion, saying that the allegations of impropriety facing the Left Party cannot be "dismissed with a piece of paper." In the meantime, the party's state lawmakers appear to have disavowed that piece of paper anyway.

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Berlin's center-left Social Democrats (SPD) and environmentalist Greens have halted exploratory coalition talks with the socialist Left Party , which followed last month's regional elections .

The two parties' lead candidates from the state elections, Werner Graf of the Greens and Steffen Krach of the SPD, announced the move in a joint statement on Tuesday evening.

They referred to Left Party meetings earlier in the day in which party members signed a statement on handling antisemitism and on Israel's right to exist , but using a text that differed from a statement the three parties had jointly agreed to when opening the negotiations.

"We have taken note that the Left Party have reached a different arrangement within their own party," Graf and Krach's statement said.

However, the SPD and Greens also made clear that they were not closing the door on the Left Party entirely.

"This means that at this point we have to interrupt the coalition negotiations, so as to evaluate whether or not our agreement from last week still stands," they wrote. "We expect the Left Party to make clear to us to what extent they take the agreements they made seriously and intend to implement them."

The Left Party emerged as the largest party Berlin's close-fought election last month, claiming just under 26% of the vote, faring particularly well with young voters .

The Greens won just over 14% and the SPD just over 12%, meaning that the three left-leaning parties would command a slim majority if combined.

In theory, the SPD and Greens could also ally with the conservative CDU, but this would yield an even more fragile majority in the city-state's parliament, with stiff populist opposition from the AfD on the far-right and the Left on the other flank.

French astronaut Sophie Adenot spoke to reporters at the European Space Agency (ESA) headquarters in Cologne on Tuesday, shortly after her return from the International Space Station.

She said that based on her experiences, it was too early to consider a mission to Mars the likes of which Elon Musk has been touting for years.

"We are not ready, we need technological breakthroughs," Adenot said, recalling her thoughts on landing in the Pacific Ocean five days ago after months in orbit.

"The moment the capsule opened, the first thing I said was, 'send me back to space,' because I was getting seasick on the waves," Adenot said. "But the second thing I said was that we are not ready to fly to Mars."

Adenot explained how around half of astronauts experienced symptoms like she did on returning from a long stretch in space, like pronounced frailty and nausea.

"With the technology that we currently have, a very long mission, a journey to Mars lasting months, just imagine the disaster," Adenot said.

Adenot said that technological breakthroughs were needed, either to drastically shorten the travel time, "or for example to artificially generate gravity," perhaps by having the spacecraft in a permanent state of rotation.

Adenot spent eight months on the International Space Station, a comparable amount of time that it would theoretically take to fly to Mars with current propulsion methods.

But she said that on the ISS there was much more space and much better facilities for exercise and movement than any transport vessel could offer.

Former Germany defender Jerome Boateng has confirmed reports of him taking up a coaching role with Turkish top-flight club Trabzonspor.

"I am very proud and happy to be a part of the coaching staff," Boateng wrote on Instagram, saying it meant "a great deal to me" to learn from Trabzonspor's German head coach and his team every day.

The 2014 World Cup winner Boateng also said the role allowed him to share his experience and work with players "on and off the pitch, which is very valuable to me."

One of those Trabzonspor players is Egyptian superstar Mohamed Salah, who joined from Liverpool in the offseason and has hit the ground running scoring a goal a game.

Boateng's appointment follows around a year after a planned start to his coaching career at his former club Bayern Munich fell through.