By James Mackenzie
BERLIN, Sept 21 (Reuters) – Elif Eralp, the leading candidate to succeed Berlin’s current mayor, vowed on Monday to confront the city’s housing affordability crisis while facing renewed scrutiny over accusations of antisemitism within parts of her party.
Eralp led The Left Party to its strongest showing in Berlin, helping it displace Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservative CDU from the mayor’s office and positioning it to lead a governing coalition for the first time.
“Berlin has clearly voted in favour of a change in policy, for an affordable Berlin where everyone can live with dignity, regardless of income or background, and for the rent crisis to be tackled consistently at long last,” Eralp said.
Plan Targets Corporate Landlords
Once known for relatively low rents, Berlin has become increasingly expensive, eroding the affordable image that helped define the German capital.
Eralp has pledged to expropriate more than 200,000 housing units from corporate landlords in a campaign that helped The Left expand beyond its traditional eastern strongholds into central and western Berlin.
“I still stand by that,” she said, despite questions over how the policy would be financed. Berlin’s centre-left Social Democrats estimate that the programme could cost about €20 billion ($22.94 billion).
Eralp said she wanted to reduce the influence of major landlords including Deutsche Wohnen and Vonovia. Vonovia Chief Executive Luka Mucic said the company was prepared to discuss solutions to Berlin’s housing shortage but argued that “socialisation doesn’t create any new housing”.
Merz said the policy would have “devastating effects” on foreign investment if implemented and said he expected rapid legislation to prevent expropriations.
Mamdani as a Precedent
Some observers have compared Eralp, 45, to New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, whose campaign for greater affordability helped secure an unexpected victory last year. Eralp is the daughter of left-wing Turkish parents who sought asylum in Germany after the 1980 military coup in Turkey.
Like Mamdani, she relied heavily on grassroots campaigning and social media, performing particularly well among younger voters and attracting support from thousands of Berliners who had not previously voted.
“As a woman, I’m reluctant to compare myself to a man. But naturally Mamdani’s success was a big example for us,” she said. “And we were very happy about it, because that election victory sent a very clear signal — not just to New York, but to the entire world.”
Before the campaign, Eralp was little known outside left-wing political circles. She now appears poised to lead Berlin as the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) continues gaining support nationwide and records its best-ever result in the liberal capital.
Possible coalition partners, the Social Democrats and the environmental Greens, have indicated that they are prepared to discuss forming a government.
Both parties have, however, demanded that Eralp address longstanding accusations of antisemitism directed at some local branches of The Left, often in connection with criticism of Israel.
The issue is especially sensitive in Germany, where antisemitic incidents have increased since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel and Israel’s subsequent military campaign in Gaza, which has killed tens of thousands of people.
Merz called the rise in antisemitism a “disgrace for Germany” and pledged action against incidents in Berlin that he said had alarmed Germany’s European partners.
Eralp said it was her “absolute priority” to ensure that Jewish people in Berlin, as well as Muslims and all other communities, “feel safe and can lead a good life here”.
“It is absolutely clear to me that the glorification of violence and terrorism is completely unacceptable,” Eralp told a news conference.