The Left party (Die Linke) received the most votes in the state elections in Berlin on Sunday (20), for the first time in the history of the German capital. The result practically doubled the party’s previous vote, took the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) out of leadership in the city and represents yet another defeat for Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government coalition.
According to a projection by the Infratest dimap institute, The Left reached 25.7% of the votes, ahead of the CDU, with 18.8%, the Alternative for Germany (AfD), with 16.3%, and the Greens, with 14.3%. The Social Democratic Party (SPD) fell to 12.1%. As a result, the CDU-SPD coalition, which governed Berlin, loses its majority.
The running mate, Elif Eralp, 45 years old, ran a campaign focused on the cost of housing, which she classified as “the biggest social problem” in the capital. Daughter of left-wing activists who left Turkey after the 1980 coup, she was born in Munich and could become Berlin’s first mayor with a migrant background.
Eralp promises to “expel speculation from Berlin” and carry out the nationalization of large real estate associations, around 220 thousand housing units, a measure approved in a 2021 referendum with 58% of the votes and never implemented. SPD General Secretary Tim Kluessendorf says the transfer would cost around 20 billion euros.
SPD and Greens signaled their willingness to form a government with The Left, but conditioned the alliance on facing accusations of anti-Semitism directed at sectors of the party in Berlin. The party rejects the accusation of systematic anti-Semitism and says it opposes all forms of hostility against social groups, including racism and sexism. Eralp said he wants to protect the Jewish, Palestinian and Muslim communities.
Far right wins in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
On the same Sunday, the AfD came first in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, with 38.2%, followed by the SPD, with 35.5%. It is the second victory for the far right in a German state in less than a month, after the 43.8% obtained in Saxony-Anhalt on September 6th.
The CDU had 4.9%, the worst performance in its history in state elections, and could be left without representation in the regional Parliament for the first time. Merz called the result a “disaster” and said his party had been “crushed” in a dispute reduced to a duel between the SPD and AfD.
The co-president of the AfD, Alice Weidel, stated that the acronym “has already replaced” the CDU as the “people’s party”. The party’s candidate in the state, Leif-Erik Holm, said this Monday (21) that “the chancellor’s twilight has begun” and claimed the right to form the next regional government. The current minister-president, Manuela Schwesig, from the SPD, is expected to remain in office despite the AfD’s advantage.
Source: www.brasildefato.com.br
