Elif Eralp's Left Party on course for historic win in German capital
Exit polls put Die Linke at about 25.7% and set up coalition talks with the SPD and Greens as Elif Eralp seeks the mayoralty.
- On Sunday, Die Linke won the Berlin state election with 25.7 per cent of the vote, more than doubling its 2023 score and positioning lead candidate Elif Eralp, a 45-year-old daughter of Turkish asylum seekers, to become the capital's first left-wing mayor.
- Eralp's campaign centred on Berlin's housing crisis, where rents have soared 70 per cent over a decade; she pledged to expropriate more than 200,000 housing units from corporate landlords at around 60 per cent of market value, backed by a 2021 referendum where 58 per cent of voters supported nationalisation.
- Die Linke secured 38 of 130 seats, with the CDU at 28, AfD at 24, Greens at 22 and SPD at 18; a three-way coalition of Die Linke, Greens and SPD would hold 78 seats, well above the 66-seat majority threshold.
- Both the SPD and Greens signalled willingness to form a coalition, but conditioned talks on Die Linke addressing allegations of antisemitism, with SPD national co-leader Baerbel Bas saying it would be "very difficult" to work with a party "large parts of which act in an antisemitic way".
- Eralp faces pressure to convince coalition partners within weeks, as SPD lead candidate Steffen Krach opposes her housing expropriation plan, with the party estimating nationalisation would cost around €20 billion.
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Elif Eralp led the Left to a historic victory in Berlin and could become the city's first female mayor with Turkish roots. Her success, however, says something more about Germany: voters disillusioned with the establishment don't have to veer to the right. The post Elif Eralp is changing Berlin. The daughter of Turkish refugees on the verge of a historic reign first appeared on Political Critique.
Turkish-born Elif Eralp will need to agree on a coalition with Los Verdes and the SPD
Berlin could have its first female mayor of Turkish origin after Elif Eralp, 45, a candidate for Die Linke, led the party to victory in Berlin's state elections. Die Linke took 25.7 percent of the vote, its best result in Berlin, more than doubling its 2023 election result. The CDU took 18.8 percent, the AfD 16.3 percent, the Greens 14.3 percent and the SPD 12.1 percent. Eralp celebrated her victory among supporters, addressing the crowd in Turk…
DECRYPTAGE - The political woman of the Die Linke party of Turkish origin is in a favorable position to run the city hall of the capital.
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