Far-left Elif Eralp set to become Berlin mayor, as her Die Linke party tops elections

BERLIN, Germany — The far-left Die Linke party won Berlin elections Sunday, according to exit polls, making its lead candidate Elif Eralp the top contender to become the next mayor of Germany’s capital city.

Eralp, 45, and her pro-poor party have promised dramatic steps to solve Berlin’s housing crisis and bring down rents, including with a controversial pledge to expropriate flats held by large corporate landlords.

The daughter of Turkish migrants, Eralp has also campaigned as being the best person to counter the rise of the far-right and anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

“I believe it would indeed send a powerful signal if someone with a migration background were to become governing mayor of Berlin,” she said on the eve of the vote.

Celebrating on Sunday, she exclaimed: “In our city, love and justice have triumphed over hatred.”

Eralp — whose party wants to reduce social inequality and the power of big business — has been compared to Zohran Mamdani, the charismatic left-wing outsider who became mayor of New York.

“Naturally, the success of a democratic socialist in New York — the heartland of capitalism — is a major success,” Eralp said on Friday, calling Mamdani “a great role model.”

Related: First they take Manhattan? Looking to mimic Mamdani, far left’s Elif Eralp eyes Berlin City Hall

The election win by the Die Linke, at about 25 percent according to exit polls, was a historic first for Berlin and dealt a blow to the center-right CDU of embattled Chancellor Friedrich Merz, which came second with about 20 percent.

In order to govern, Eralp must now convince other parties — likely the center-left SPD and the Greens — to join her in a so-called “red-red-green coalition”.

However, the SPD’s lead candidate Steffen Krach has already made clear he opposes the expropriation idea by Die Linke, a party which traces its roots in part to communist East Germany’s ruling party.

Germany’s mainstream parties have many other differences with the hard-left party, especially on security policy where it opposes military aid for Ukraine and advocates for Germany to leave NATO.

Die Linke has also been criticized for anti-Israeli messages from some district-level figures — an especially sensitive issue in Germany, given its dark history of Nazi rule and the Holocaust.

Eralp had repeatedly emphasized her desire to support and foster Jewish life in Berlin.

But fierce criticism of Israel from some local branches of Die Linke, particularly in Berlin’s Neukoelln neighborhood that is home to many Arab and Muslim immigrants, has drawn negative headlines.

A concert in August at a local Die Linke campaign event in Neukoelln provoked scandal after a performer advocated an “intifada” (uprising) and chanted “Death to the IDF!”, the Israel Defense Forces.

Eralp distanced herself from the incident, but it drew fierce criticism from the Greens and the SPD — and once again prompted the press to question whether Die Linke is fit for governing.

Path to power

The Greens during the campaign appeared to prefer backing a coalition with Die Linke over the other obvious possibility of joining with the conservative CDU.

But in the SPD, which has a history of close ties to organized labor and working-class voters, there are some dissenting voices.

The SPD chose to break with a left-wing coalition after the previous election in 2023 and is currently a junior partner with the CDU.

Eralp now has a few days or weeks to convince her potential partners that she has her state branch under control and is suited to govern.

Erlap’s parents, who were active in socialist politics and trade unions in Turkey, fled to Germany in 1980 following a military coup when the mother was eight months pregnant.

Eralp was born in Munich and went on to study law in Hamburg, going on to defend migrants’ rights. She was hired as a staffer for Die Linke’s faction in the German parliament in 2010, and moved to Berlin permanently not long after.

She lives in the trendy Kreuzberg district with her husband and two children — and is often quick to emphasize that, like most Berliners, they rent their flat and are not homeowners.

Alleged Palestinian terror supporters attends victory event

Die Linke party faced criticism Monday over the presence of two controversial figures at its victory celebrations for the city-state’s election.

At the Die Linke victory party in the Neukoelln district on Sunday evening, one of the party’s MPs, Ferat Kocak, was pictured with Ibrahim Ibrahim, described by German media as a supporter of armed Palestinian militants.

The Europnews outlet described Ibrahim as a supporter of the PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) terror group. It noted he was wearing a T-shirt with the slogan, “See you in Palestine.”

Also spotted at the event was Issa Remmo, the head of the “Remmo clan”, an extended family known for a web of ties to organized crime.

The SPD, one of Die Linke’s possible coalition partners, sharply criticized the party.

“You have to know who you’re celebrating with,” SPD lead candidate Steffen Krach told the Rheinische Post newspaper.

The SPD’s national co-leader Baerbel Bas told reporters that it would be “very difficult” to work with a party “large parts of which act in an antisemitic way.”

Auf Fotos von der Wahlparty, die bei TikTok veröffentlicht wurden, posieren Vanessa Emde und Ferat Koçak mit Ibrahim Ibrahim. pic.twitter.com/HN34vlI2BD

— Never Again Berlin (@NeverAgainBLN) September 20, 2026

In a statement published on his social media channels on Monday, Kocak said he took “hundreds” of photos with supporters on Sunday and stressed that the event in question was “open to the public.”

“When people come up to me at our celebrations and want to take a photo with me, I assume that this is OK,” he said.

“I expressly distance myself from (Ibrahim’s) statements praising violence and terrorism,” he added.

“We don’t have any guest lists, but as soon as these people were seen, they were told to leave,” Die Linke co-chair Ines Schwerdtner told a press conference Monday, referring to Ibrahim and Remmo.

Speaking alongside her, Eralp also distanced herself from the two men.

“Celebrating violence and terrorism is absolutely unacceptable,” she said, adding: “I stand for the protection of Jewish life.”

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.