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Top candidate Bartsch (left) next to Scholz: "I can no longer hear the nonsense"
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Bernd von Jutrczenka / picture alliance / dpa
After a 45-minute press conference, left-wing parliamentary group leader Dietmar Bartsch had had enough.
He had invited to the Karl-Liebknecht-Haus to give a lecture on the left’s "emergency program", and now the journalists present only asked about left-wing foreign policy.
"Stop it," Bartsch finally rumbled, "I can't hear the nonsense anymore", it's about politics - "and not about stuff like confessions".
But the SPD and the Greens are calling for a commitment as a basis for a possible red-green-red coalition: one to NATO.
In doing so, the SPD and the Greens are demanding the practically impossible from the left.
This campaigns for a withdrawal from the defense alliance and a sharp change of course in German foreign policy: stop arms exports, development policy instead of armed combat operations.
What should such a NATO commitment look like, Bartsch asked at the press conference, "should we go to NATO headquarters and kneel down there?"
The left are annoyed. For decades the party had established itself in the opposition role, preferring to deal with itself and its camp struggles rather than with the question of whether it wanted to help shape the politics of this country responsibly. Now, however, the left is striving to join the government: it is wooing the SPD and the Greens more openly than ever to forge a red-green-red alliance after the election.
Party leader Susanne Hennig-Wellsow never tires of emphasizing that one is ready for red-green-red, her co-leader Janine Wissler says there are "more similarities than differences," and Bartsch explains that green and red interests are much more likely to be implemented with the left than in a traffic light coalition with the FDP. The “immediate program” of the left is like - despite a lack of commitment to NATO - a handout to the SPD and the Greens: We could do something like this.
Problem: Now, of all times, when the left finally wants, when a left majority seems tangible in the polls, the potential partners react rather coolly to the dark red advances.
SPD leader Norbert Walter-Borjans explains that the left is "in a critical situation" with polls around six percent.
What he means: The left is now fighting so intensely for red-green-red because otherwise, without any power option, they run the risk of failing the five percent hurdle.
Neither the Social Democrats nor the Greens would find that particularly bad at the moment.
Without the left in the Bundestag, there is a greater chance that there will be enough for the actual desired coalition of both parties: for red-green.
For a long time such a two-party alliance belonged to the realm of utopia, but meanwhile the SPD and the Greens together have reached values above 40 percent in the opinion polls.
The dream coalition is within reach.
"Fewer parties in a government are better than many," said the federal executive director of the Greens, Michael Kellner, on Monday.
He advocates taking over government responsibility "together with the SPD."
If it is not enough for that, it has to "show up in talks" who could be considered as a third government partner.
The left sees itself here as a natural procurer of the majority.
But although there is a lot of overlap between the three parties in terms of content, the alliance is not a sure-fire success either for the SPD or for the Greens - which is mainly due to foreign and defense policy.
When the party abstained from the vote on the rescue mandate for Afghanistan two weeks ago, according to Kellner, the party "sidelined".
Foreign policy issues played "a major role" at the federal level in contrast to the state level.
It is "very unclear" whether the left is ready to "support a progressive government."
Traffic light alliance more attractive for the SPD and the Greens
Kellner belongs to the left wing of his party, as do other Green politicians, who have so far naturally not been averse to a left-wing alliance, are cautious about the R2G even in background discussions.
A traffic light alliance with the FDP would also be more attractive at the moment for the Social Democrats.
The Merkel voters, for whom Chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz is campaigning, could, according to the fear of some comrades, be put off by advertising for red-green-red.
Without completely ruling out cooperation after the election, the Social Democrats and Greens prefer to ignore the left for the time being.
They'd rather practice working together in harmony.
On Sunday, the green candidate for Chancellor Annalena Baerbock and Scholz met for a "conversation at the garden fence", to which a neighborhood association in Potsdam had invited.
Both politicians want to get the direct mandate there.
Baerbock and Scholz say goodbye, the green politician promised Olaf a piece of apple pie when her daughter bakes again.
Scholz said he thought it would be good if both the SPD and the Greens belonged to the next government.
Baerbock had nothing fundamentally wrong with that, but still thought that the Greens should be "right at the front."
Scholz added: "Second place is also right at the front."
What loves each other teases each other, that's how it seemed.
But for the SPD and the Greens, forming a government could still be difficult.
Should it not be enough for a red-green alliance, the path to a traffic light coalition with the FDP would not be easy either.
This is by no means only due to the pronounced reservations on the part of the Liberals.
The party leaders of the SPD and the Greens would then have to explain to their generally more left-wing base why they prefer forming a government with the FDP to a left-wing alliance.
The left-wing leadership emphasizes these days not to be afraid of the five percent hurdle.
Instead you can see the red-green-red back and forth of the last few days as a boost.
"The debates are going very well for us at the moment," said the party executive: "If the arithmetical majorities are correct and the will for a change of policy can be seen in the SPD and the Greens, we will certainly sound out."
The only question is whether the SPD and the Greens want that.
However, neither party will still exclude the alliance.
As early as 2013, the SPD decided not to reject coalitions with the Left Party in principle, but to make them dependent on criteria such as the financial feasibility of certain projects and reliability in foreign policy.
More decisive, however, is a strategic reason: If the SPD categorically rejects the Left Party as a potential government partner before the election, it will make itself dependent on FDP leader Christian Lindner. Should the FDP leader rule out a traffic light, the Social Democrats might end up with no power option.