Elif Eralp, the Turkish-origin lawyer who has embellished the Left to Berlin promising expropriations

One of the headlines of this Sunday's election night in the city-state of Berlin is the triumph, for the first time, of the postcommunist parties. Die Linke (The Left) is becoming the leader of the left-wing political space in the German capital and, for the first time since reunification, it gains more support than the Social Democrats, who are last in the distribution of seats, and also surpasses the Greens. This political triumph, which contrasts with the global rise of the far-right, has a name: Elif Eralp, the candidate for the mayoralty from the party. Read it all Subscribe to the International newsletter What seems far away is more important than ever Subscribe With a discourse based on social justice in which they often speak of prioritizing "the interests of the people of Berlin, without dividing them according to origin", Eralp, 45, has emerged in the arena against the city's elites and the reactionary wave. The campaign and the tone of several appearances recall the mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani. In fact, she has placed him several times as a personal political reference. Born in Berlin, she is a lawyer specializing in civil rights and also an activist. Her mother arrived in the German capital already pregnant with her in 1980, fleeing along with her husband from the military regime in Turkey led by the army. Now, in a general context of hostility towards migrants and descendants of immigrants, she will probably become the first Turkish-German mayor of the city. During the campaign, Eralp has focused a good part of her rallies and public appearances on proposals to confront the housing crisis that, like many European cities, also affects Berlin, despite rent prices being limited around Germany. One of her star proposals, which she repeated during the election campaign, is a measure that is not unknown to Berliners, but has never been implemented. In 2021, the residents of the German capital voted in a non-binding referendum in favor of expropriating properties of companies and investment funds that own more than 3,000 housing units. 56.4% of Berliners supported buying 240,000 housing units with public money and creating a housing company that manages rents. But even though a commission of city experts concluded that it is legally viable, this measure has never been implemented, and Eralp has committed to pushing it forward. Among some sectors, however, she is criticized – both her and Die Linke as a whole – for having a position that is sometimes too unclear in a folder especially sensitive to the country: the conflict between Israel and Palestine. Eralp defends without reservation the "right to exist" of Israel, and has often distanced herself from the more Palestinian sectors of the party. In fact, during the campaign, she always avoided this folder when she could. One of the reasons, according to several analysts, is that a defense of Palestine that is read in Germany as excessively clinging to it could make future pacts with the SPD and the Greens, with whom she aspires to govern and who have often made anti-Semitic accusations against Eralp's party when she defended Palestinian positions. She has voted one in two young people The Palestinian question is one of the points where some tensions she has maintained with the more radical sectors of the party, both among young militants and some members of the leadership, become more visible. Friction that Eralp has managed to overcome and which demonstrate the centrist role she occupies within the party, away from the more radical sectors. Despite the divergences with some younger sectors of the party, Eralp has been able to connect and convince the younger Berliners: 42% of voters between 16 and 24 years old opted for the postcommunist party, and among citizens aged 25 to 34, the percentage rises almost to 50%.