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Berlin Left Confirms Elif Eralp as 2026 Lead Candidate as Party Navigates Gaza Rift

Leaders seek a Gaza policy compromise to keep factional disputes from overshadowing a housing-focused run.

Overview

  • Delegates in Lichtenberg nominated Eralp by acclamation, launching her bid to become Berlin’s governing mayor in the September 2026 election.
  • Eralp centered her platform on housing, pledging to implement the expropriation referendum and to cap rents in roughly 380,000 municipal apartments.
  • In her speech she condemned the October 7, 2023 Hamas massacre, vowed to protect Jewish life in Berlin, and urged members not to pit one side’s grief against the other’s.
  • Veteran leftist Petra Pau called for unequivocal clarity against antisemitism, while party leaders promoted a compromise that acknowledges suffering of Israelis and Palestinians and targets becoming the strongest force in Berlin.
  • Two contentious motions from the Palestine-solidarity faction—to decriminalize BDS and to term Israel’s Gaza campaign a genocide—remained under negotiation, facing pushback from some district leaders including Neukölln.