Under pressure from left-wing SPD officials, Neukölln district mayor Martin Hikel decided not to seek re-election at the start of the month. In that district, Hikel was elected unopposed as the top candidate with only 68.5 percent – from Hikel’s point of view, a very poor result. He decided to withdraw.
Hikel’s left-wing critics accused him of a strict approach to clan crimes and Islamic structures in Neukölln. He is also said to have refused to use the term “anti-Muslim racism”.
What may sound like a political joke from the outside can give rise to heated debate within the Berlin SPD, especially among their left wing. Hikel, the pragmatist, apparently does not want to bow to the left wing in his own party and sticks to his line. The SPD’s left wing, in contrast, was criticized for not sufficiently condemning rampant anti-Semitism in Neukölln and for maintaining contacts with Islamist groups. These accusations came from the Neukölln district integration officer, Güner Balci, who accused the Berlin SPD of being partly “infiltrated” by Islamist groups.
The Berlin SPD co-chairman was also punished. In the Berlin-Reinickendorf district association, Nicola Böcker-Giannini recently clearly missed out on third place on the list. In just two weeks, the party had weakened its leadership so much that the two announced their resignations at the end of November.
Hikel and Böcker-Giannini were only elected to the party’s top association in a runoff election in spring 2024 with nearly 60 percent of the vote. However, at that time, it was party members who made the decisions – and not officials, as was the case with district decision-making.
That’s why many are now asking themselves: Is SPD Berlin still a party that represents the wishes of its members? Or are left-wing officials pushing for a shift to the left? And most importantly: What must happen now until the Berlin elections in September?
