The victory of the Left in the Berlin elections and the strong performance of its leader Elif Eralp caused a wide resonance in Turkey, where the media put particular emphasis on the politician's Turkish roots. Some publications called the result historic, and the newspaper Sözcü came out with the emotional headline: „Turkish candidate smashes the ballot boxes - the Germans said „Elif“!“.
The Left won the elections for the Chamber of Deputies in Berlin with 25.7% of the vote, preliminary final results show. This is the party's best result in the German capital and more than double the 12.2% it achieved in the 2023 elections.
The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) came in second with 18.8%, followed by the “Alternative for Germany“ with 16.3%, the Greens with 14.3% and the Social Democratic Party of Germany with 12.1%. The previous governing majority of the CDU and the Social Democrats was thus lost.
The result gives Eralp the opportunity to participate in negotiations to form the next Berlin government. If she receives the necessary parliamentary majority and is elected as governing mayor, she will become the first representative of the Left to lead the German capital and the first person with a migrant background to hold this position. However, winning the election alone does not automatically mean that Eralp will lead Berlin – this requires a majority in parliament.
Turkish media: “Historic result“
The elections received unusually wide attention in Turkey. Television Halk TV reported a “historic result in Germany“, emphasizing that the party of the ruling mayoral candidate of Turkish origin Elif Eralp won in Berlin.
Serbestiyet emphasized her family history and wrote that the daughter of a family that left Turkey after the military coup of September 12, 1980, is now close to the opportunity to head the government of Berlin.
The headline of Sözcü was particularly loud: “Turkish candidate smashes the ballot boxes – Germans said “Elif“!“. The phrase "smashed the ballot box" is a Turkish journalistic expression for an extremely strong election performance, not a literal description of what happened.
Eralp herself also addressed her supporters in Turkish immediately after the first estimated results: “We have written history, friends“. She later told her supporters that in Berlin “love and justice have defeated hatred“ and promised a change in the city's governance.
Who is Elif Eralp
45-year-old Elif Eralp was born in 1981 in Munich. Her parents were socialists and trade unionists who fled Turkey after the 1980 military coup. Her mother was pregnant with her when the family fled.
Eralp is a lawyer and deputy chairwoman of the Left party's parliamentary group in Berlin. Before the election, she was not among the most recognizable German politicians at the national level, but her campaign attracted attention with its active use of social media and its strong focus on housing policy and high rents.
The Left's victory was particularly clear in some parts of the German capital. In the district elections in Neukölln, the party received 32% of the vote, and in one of the constituencies there it reached 50.1% in the second party list vote.
Victory does not automatically mean power
Despite the historic result, the future governance of Berlin has not yet been decided. Eralp must find partners for a parliamentary majority before she can be elected as governing mayor.
Therefore, the statements in some Turkish media that she is already on the verge of “taking over Berlin“ reflect political expectations after the elections, and not a completed process of forming a government.
However, one thing is already a fact – The Left became the strongest political force for the first time in elections for the Berlin Chamber of Deputies, and Elif Eralp went from being a relatively little-known politician outside the German capital to one of the most discussed names in the German and Turkish press.