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4h ago

Berlin Linke Picks Elif Eralp for 2026, Puts Housing at the Center

A party congress on November 15 is set to confirm her to challenge Mayor Kai Wegner in 2026.

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Die Berliner Linke will mit Elif Eralp als Spitzenkandidatin in die Abgeordnetenhauswahl im kommenden Jahr ziehen. Die 44-Jährige sei einstimmig vom Landesvorstand vorgeschlagen worden, teilte die Partei mit.
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Overview

  • The state board unanimously nominated the 44-year-old jurist as lead candidate, with final ratification planned for November 15.
  • In her first public appearance after the nomination, Eralp made housing the campaign’s core and criticized the CDU–SPD government for failing renters.
  • She proposed socializing about 220,000 apartments, freezing rents in roughly 380,000 city-owned homes, and exploring a luxury-villa tax on purchases above €4 million.
  • Further plans include a taskforce against rent gouging, a state housing authority to enforce tenant protections, 7,500 new social homes annually, and requiring large landlords to allocate one in three vacancies to lower-income tenants.
  • The Linke aims to build on its roughly 20% first-place Berlin result in February’s federal vote and a membership surge to about 16,700 as it prepares to challenge Wegner on September 20, 2026.