Issa Remmo, described by German police and prosecutors as head of the Remmo clan, attended Die Linke’s election-night party in Berlin-Neukölln on Sunday after the party finished first in the Abgeordnetenhaus vote.
He was later reported at a second gathering in Kreuzberg.
He told the Berliner Morgenpost he was “pleased about Die Linke,” that he felt supported by a German party for the first time.
Regarding recurring accusations of antisemitism said that “the Berlin Left is not hostile towards Jews” and stressed “I would not vote for an anti-Jewish politician.”
“I’m happy about Die Linke, who don’t go to Prada and Gucci in Paris with their wives.”
He posed with a victory sign and a raised thumb.
The Neukölln district association said the event was public, that Remmo was not on the guest list, and that there were “neither political nor personal relations” with him.
Lead candidate Elif Eralp told ZDF he had not been invited and “was sent out again.”
We have nothing to do with organised crime. We fight it.”
Jorinde Schulz, co-head of the district left, told German news agency dpa: “There are neither political nor personal relations with this person.” The attendance of the election party “of course did not change anything.”
Governing mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) called the appearance “a disturbing signal” and said a party that wanted to run the city must show it had no proximity to organised-crime structures.
“For me, anyone who wants to govern Berlin must stand on the side of our rule of law and those who defend it every day without ifs and buts,” Wegner wrote.
🔴 @der_neukoellner MdB Ferat Koçak feiert bei Wahlparty seiner @LinkeNeukoelln mit Ibrahim Ibrahim (r.), Vertreter des extremistischen „Vereinigten Palästinensischen Nationalkomitees“ (VPNK), Dach für PFLP und Hamas in Berlin. Ibrahim gratuliert: VPNK war „Teil dieses Erfolgs“. pic.twitter.com/xy6LdPN420
— Alexander Fröhlich (@alx_froehlich) September 20, 2026
Die Linke took 25.7 per cent on the provisional count, ahead of the CDU on 18.8, the AfD on 16.3, the Greens on 14.3 and the SPD on 12.1.
It more than doubled its 2023 score and recorded its best Berlin result.
Eralp, who is seeking the mayoralty, won her Kreuzberg constituency with 50.4 per cent of first votes.
Television pictures of the parties showed dancing and prominent pro-Palestinian symbols.
Bild and t-online reported that Remmo was accompanied by Ibrahim Ibrahim, whom the NGO Democ describes as a leading German supporter of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, an organisation listed as terrorist by the EU.
In 2025, Ibrahim appeared at events and meetings of Amnesty International and Die Linke Neukölln as speakers of the National Committee, alongside the Neukölln Bundestag member Ferat Koçak.
After Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 Ibrahim described Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar as a “steadfast leader” and “martyr hero.”
Der langjährige PFLP-Aktivist Ibrahim Ibrahim nimmt offenbar an einer Wahlparty von DIE LINKE in Neukölln teil. Das zeigt ein Bild der Berliner Morgenpost, auf dem er gemeinsam mit Clan-Chef Issa Remmo zu sehen ist. (Foto: @MaxPribilla) pic.twitter.com/zVFAUd3YUx
— democ (@democ_de) September 20, 2026
The Remmo family, of Middle-Eastern origin, has been the subject of years of investigation into property, money-laundering and robbery; 77 properties were seized in 2018.
They are also linked to a number of murder investigations en several high profile crimes.
Relatives were convicted over the 2017 theft of the 100-kilogram gold coin from the Bode Museum and the 2019 Green Vault burglary in Dresden, a €113 million jewel heist, one of the biggest in German history.
However, at this time Issa Remmo is not the object of police observation.
The scene has been read, in German debate, through the lens of islamogauchisme — a French coinage, used pejoratively, for a working alliance between parts of the radical left and Islamist or Islamist-adjacent networks, especially on Israel and the police.
The Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) has recorded overlap between clan crime and Islamist milieus.
Both have the same recruiting pools, local cooperation, and, in some cases there are friendships.
In large cities that overlap is visible in neighbourhoods, demonstrations and now on an election-night dance floor.
Politically, Die Linke, which takes a lot of votes from migrant communities and campaigned in foreign languages, says it want to dismantle the police. Instead it wants to put the money into social projects.
They regularly accuse the police of being racist and stigmatising, including towards the Remmo crime clan.
LINKE feiert die neue Nationalhymne pic.twitter.com/KZfRAqixKZ
— Miró (@unblogd) September 20, 2026
