Elif Eralp, Spitzenkandidatin der Linken | Berlin-Wahl 2026 - Jung & Naiv: Folge 849

Summary

Elif Eralp, Die Linke’s candidate for Governing Mayor of Berlin in the 2026 election, says she is running to replace the CDU-led government and address what she sees as a city divided by unaffordable housing and inequality. She presents herself as part of a younger, more diverse and renewed Die Linke.

Eralp’s preferred leadership style is based on dialogue and coalition-building rather than a mayor imposing decisions. She says a coalition agreement should be prepared carefully and implemented promptly, while acknowledging that governing with the SPD and Greens would require compromise.

Background and representation

Eralp describes her family’s flight from Turkey after the 1980 military coup. Her socialist and trade-unionist parents sought asylum in Germany; she was born in Munich while her mother was pregnant. She recalls her family’s early insecurity and her parents’ difficulties getting work and qualifications recognized. She says these experiences shaped her commitment to human rights and anti-racism, though she was not politically indoctrinated at home.

A lawyer and former activist, Eralp joined Die Linke in 2017, saying she wanted to strengthen an anti-fascist, pro-migration current in the party. She argues that people with migrant and refugee backgrounds face both common urban problems and additional barriers, including discrimination in housing, employment and interactions with police. As mayor, she says she would make their experiences more visible and oppose their stigmatization.

Policing, security and drugs

Eralp says Berlin should work to eliminate racial profiling. She wants to end “high-crime areas,” where police can conduct stops without specific grounds, and supports a system requiring officers to document the reasons for stops. She also calls for stronger democratic oversight, an empowered police ombudsman and fuller use of the State Anti-Discrimination Act.

Rather than simply expanding the police force, she proposes reviewing police duties and transferring some tasks to other agencies. She argues that demonstrations should be managed with a stronger emphasis on de-escalation.

Die Linke’s long-term goal, she says, is to replace the Berlin Office for the Protection of the Constitution with a more transparent, civil-society-based institution that does not use intelligence methods. In the nearer term, she wants stronger parliamentary scrutiny and public access to the reasons organizations are monitored. She is particularly critical of informants, citing the failures revealed by the NSU case.

On drugs, Eralp says the spread of crack and the visible harms of addiction require action, but rejects a primarily punitive response. She supports drug checking and safer consumption spaces, and wants law enforcement to focus on organized crime rather than individual users. She is open to reducing penalties for possession of small quantities, while noting that decisions on legalizing substances largely rest with the federal government. She also suggests that work permits and more secure residence status could give some people alternatives to informal or illegal work.

For public transport safety, she proposes more staff passengers can approach and better working conditions for transit employees. She says Berlin is generally safe but takes residents’ concerns seriously, including her own experience of sexualized harassment on the subway.

Migration, asylum and integration

Eralp says she would try to use Berlin’s administrative discretion to help more people obtain residence and work permits, and would oppose deportations wherever possible. She supports a federal regularization program for undocumented residents and says Berlin could press for one through the Bundesrat. She would also prevent deportations directly from schools, hospitals and youth facilities, and avoid separating families.

She rejects the idea that integration is solely the responsibility of newcomers. Instead, she argues that Berlin should provide more German-language courses, speed up recognition of foreign qualifications and improve access to education and work. She opposes segregated schooling for refugee children and criticizes conditions in large accommodation centres.

Eralp also proposes a municipal “City ID” to improve undocumented residents’ access to services and convey that everyone living in Berlin belongs to the city.

Jobs, poverty and public services

Eralp endorses full employment as a long-term goal but declines to set a firm timetable or numerical target, saying the result depends on economic conditions beyond a state government’s control. Her proposed measures include creating public-sector jobs, expanding training, requiring decent conditions in public contracts and using public funding to protect jobs. She rejects jobs in the arms industry as a route to economic growth, arguing that workers should instead be retrained for sustainable industries.

She describes poverty as widespread in Berlin, especially among children and older people, and argues that high rents are a major cause. She supports a wealth tax but says Berlin has limited power to introduce one, so her immediate focus would be reducing everyday costs. Her proposals include restoring the €9 social transit pass, expanding free school meals, offering €3 meals at neighbourhood canteens, improving advice services and making public administration more accessible in multiple languages and formats.

Housing and socialization

Housing is central to Eralp’s campaign. She says Die Linke would introduce a socialization bill within its first year in government, drawing on work by the citizens’ initiative and an expert commission. She treats the socialization of large housing companies as a priority, pointing to Berlin’s referendum mandate and arguing that it is a key tool for keeping rents affordable. She says the proposal would need to meet constitutional requirements and include a workable public-law body and financing.

She also supports rent controls in state-owned housing, stronger enforcement against illegal rent increases and a Secure Housing Act. For landlords with at least 50 apartments, her party proposes requiring one in three to be rented affordably; she says this threshold was chosen to make the measure legally robust.

Other proposals include restrictions on commercial short-term rentals, converting vacant office space into housing, adding floors to suitable buildings and building in planned new urban districts. She opposes building on Tempelhofer Feld, describing it as an important public green space.

Transport and climate

Eralp favours prioritizing walking, public transport and safe cycling while allowing private cars to remain in the city. She says Berlin should reduce car use mainly by making alternatives cheaper, more frequent and more reliable, including expanding tram lines and improving connections in outer districts.

She supports more protected bike lanes and safer intersections. She is open to higher resident-parking fees and says the current charge is too low, but wants to consider the effects on people who depend on cars.

Universities and antisemitism debate

Eralp calls the condition of Berlin’s universities unacceptable. She proposes an emergency renovation fund, prioritizing the most urgent repairs, reversing higher-education cuts where possible and seeking additional federal support.

The interview also examines a performance at a Neukölln Die Linke campaign event featuring rapper Dahabflex. Eralp says the lyrics, including references to “Intifada” and the IDF, frightened many Jewish people and had no place at a Die Linke campaign event. She distanced herself from the performance and said political language should help people feel safe and bring communities together.

She also maintained that criticism of Israel and its military must not automatically be equated with hostility toward Jews, while acknowledging that many Jewish listeners interpreted the lyrics as threatening.

Eralp supports the party’s use of the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism and is critical of using the IHRA definition to restrict cultural or political speech. She says she opposes censorship and the weaponization of antisemitism accusations, while defending the need to take Jewish people’s fears seriously. She argues that definitions should not become instruments of repression.

Election strategy

Eralp says Die Linke’s core campaign demands are tackling rent profiteering, addressing waste and street-cleanliness problems, and reducing bus and train fares. The party wants to win the election and remove the CDU from the Rotes Rathaus. Eralp believes more door-to-door campaigning can persuade voters who feel politics does not affect their lives.

She acknowledges that coalition negotiations would be difficult, especially over socialization and antisemitism policy.

Presenters and contributors

• Tilo Jung — Interviewer and host
• Elif Eralp — Guest; Die Linke’s candidate for Governing Mayor
• Hans — Audience-question coordinator and contributor at the end of the interview