Eralp seeks coalition after Berlin election victory

BERLIN

Top candidate for the Die Linke (The Left) party in the Berlin state election Elif Eralp reacts to exit polls during a Die Linke election party following the Berlin state election, in Berlin, Germany, Sept. 20. (EPA/CHRISTOPH RUTENKOLK)

Elif Eralp is seeking coalition partners after leading Germany’s Left Party to victory in Berlin’s Sept. 20 state election, putting her in contention to become the city’s first governing mayor of Turkish origin.

Provisional results gave Die Linke 25.7 percent, its strongest showing in Berlin, ahead of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) on 18.8 percent.

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) took 16.3 percent, followed by the Greens with 14.3 percent and the Social Democrats (SPD) with 12.1 percent. The Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance missed the 5 percent parliamentary threshold with 4.7 percent.

A coalition of the Left Party, Greens and SPD would have a parliamentary majority.

The Greens have expressed willingness to hold talks, but differences over housing policy remain.

The Left Party wants to bring about 220,000 homes owned by large property companies into public ownership, following a 2021 referendum backing the proposal. The SPD opposes the plan.

The Greens and SPD have also called for a firm stance against antisemitism as a condition for cooperation.

Eralp celebrated the result with party members, relatives and friends at Festsaal Kreuzberg.

“In our city, love and justice have triumphed over hatred, and this message is going out to the world,” she told supporters.

Speaking to daily Hürriyet after the results were announced, Eralp thanked the Turkish community for its support and pledged to make Berlin a better place to live.

“We built this country together. It is time to recognize that,” she said.

Her mother, Hülya Eralp, told Hürriyet she had been unable to sleep for three days because of the tension before the vote. She said the result offered hope to others who had fought for similar goals.

Recalling her daughter’s uncertainty about whether to run, she said she had encouraged her: “Do it, my daughter. Do it for all of us.”

The elections brought further losses for Merz’s conservatives.

In Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the AfD finished first with 38.2 percent, while the CDU received 4.9 percent and failed to enter a state parliament for the first time.

Merz called the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern result a “disaster” but pledged to remain in office and continue his reform agenda.

The setbacks followed the AfD’s Sept. 6 victory in Saxony-Anhalt, which had already prompted calls within the CDU for the chancellor to step down.