Negotiations aimed at forming a local government in Berlin entered their first phase, four days after the parliamentary elections, at a time when the identity of the next mayor had not yet been decided, despite the left-wing Die Linke party topping the results by obtaining 25.7% of the votes. The elections showed a broad and remarkable support base for the party, which extended to include Muslim voters and young people in the German capital.
According to a report by journalist Eli Leon in the Israeli newspaper Maariv, the “Die Linke” party led by Elif Eralp topped the results with 25.7%, followed by the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) with 18.8%, then the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party with 16.3%, and the Green Party with 14.3%, while the Social Democratic Party (SPD) came in fifth with 12.1%.
Eralp, the daughter of asylum seekers from Turkey, is seeking to form a coalition that includes the Green Party and the Social Democratic Party, which could make her the first Die Linke figure to become mayor of Berlin. Together, these three parties have a comfortable majority in the local parliament with 78 seats out of 130 (38 seats for Die Linke, 22 for the Greens, and 18 for the Social Democrats), while forming a coalition requires only 66 seats to reach a majority. On the other hand, another alternative is the “Kenya” coalition that brings together the Christian Democratic Union, the Greens, and the Social Democratic Party, an option that may keep the “Die Linke” party out of power despite its lead in the elections.
During a party conference held today, Friday, the Die Linke party is scheduled to decide its final position regarding opening official exploratory talks to form the government. The past period witnessed initial contacts between Die Linke and the Greens, during which the two sides agreed that the preliminary discussions would focus on issues of security, protecting Jewish life, the LGBT community, and confronting anti-Semitism and racism.
However, these files turned into a major obstacle, given the pressure and criticism directed at some local branches of the “Die Linke” party and the participation of controversial figures in election night activities. The partnership with Die Linke also faces objections within the Social Democratic Party. Former leaders, including former Berlin mayors Walter Momper and Michael Müller, called for refraining from negotiating with him unless he provided clear and decisive answers regarding the issue of anti-Semitism. On the other hand, other parties in the Berlin political scene are pushing to test the possibility of forming a left-wing government led by the leading party.
The political dispute is not limited to security aspects only, but extends to the Eralp plan to transfer the ownership of hundreds of thousands of apartments belonging to major real estate companies to public ownership, at a cost estimated at about 20 billion euros. Eralp confirmed its adherence to this demand despite the reservations of potential partners, and this issue, which, along with the housing crisis and rising rents, constituted a main focus of the “Die Linke” election campaign aimed at making Berlin a more cost-effective city for living.
According to the system in force in Berlin, the mayor’s office is not automatically awarded to the party that wins first place. Rather, members of the local parliament elect the mayor based on the success of the coalition composition in securing the required majority. The new parliament is scheduled to hold its first session on October 29, despite the absence of a binding deadline for choosing the mayor, as the rules allow him to be elected by a regular majority in the third round if the candidates fail to obtain the required majority during the first two rounds.
In parallel, an analysis of voting patterns prepared by the Forschungsgruppe Wahlen Foundation, based on a survey of 17,460 voters upon leaving the polls, revealed that 51% of Muslim voters in Berlin voted for the Die Linke party, a percentage equivalent to double the party’s support among all voters. The analysis links this support to social and economic factors, including the housing and rent crisis, as well as the feeling of discrimination by some Muslims and the party’s positions on Middle Eastern issues, in light of the presence of more than 400,000 Muslims in the capital.
The party’s rise was not limited to Muslim voters, as polls showed that about 43% of young people between the ages of 16 and 24 voted for Die Linke, which strengthened its position in the inner neighborhoods of the capital. With this supportive composition, Eralp stands in an advanced position within the coalition negotiations, awaiting the results of the parliamentary alliances to resolve the mayorship and transform the electoral progress into an actual government.
