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Katja Kipping
Photo: Frederic Kern / imago images / Future Image
Katja Kipping is to become the new Senator for Social Affairs in Berlin.
This was announced by Berlin's left-wing chairwoman Katina Schubert on Wednesday.
"I am pleased that I am able to propose Katja Kipping, one of the most prominent social politicians in our party and in Germany as the successor to Elke Breitenbach," said Schubert.
Breitenbach announced on Tuesday evening that she would not run again as senator.
If the party members of the left decide to join the Berlin state government, the senators should be officially nominated by the committees on December 20, according to Schubert.
The left will receive three senatorial posts in the planned new red-green-red Berlin state government.
Kipping, 43, from Dresden, has sat in the Bundestag since 2005 and was federal chairman of the Left together with Bernd Riexinger from 2012 to 2021.
The Chemnitz Free Press first reported on her nomination for the senatorial post.
The SPD, the Greens and the Left have been ruling together in Berlin since 2016.
Now they want to renew their alliance in the capital, last Monday they presented the coalition agreement for a further five years (read an analysis here).
In the case of the Left, the members are now supposed to decide on this contract by December 17, in the case of the SPD and the Greens, party congresses do so.
If the internal party approval is then given, the SPD state chairwoman Franziska Giffey wants to be elected as the new governing mayor of Berlin on December 21st.
She then follows Michael Müller.
The SPD won the Berlin House of Representatives election on September 26th, clearly ahead of the Greens and the CDU, while the Left came fourth.
The SPD then sounded out with the CDU and FDP, but ultimately spoke out in favor of a new version of the alliance with the Greens and the Left Party.
as / dpa / AFP
