Elif Eralp, the lead candidate of Germany’s left-wing Die Linke party seeking to become governing mayor of Berlin, has privately admitted that she and her husband fear individuals with links to the militant group Hamas, according to internal comments accidentally shared with Der Spiegel.
In annotations on a draft interview that her office accidentally returned to the magazine this week, Eralp asked for the removal of a passage concerning the pro-Palestinian activist Ibrahim Ibrahim. The authorised version sent back by her spokesperson still contained her team’s notes, the magazine said in a cover story published on October 29.
She wrote that she could not “endanger myself and my family for Der Spiegel” and asked: “What do we do now? Can we cancel the whole interview?”
She added that she and her husband had “fear of these people”.
Eralp explained her reluctance to name specific individuals by citing past advice from Berlin’s State Criminal Police Office (LKA).
“At the time it was about OK [organised crime]. Now it’s about people with contacts to Hamas,” she wrote.
Eralp wrote that she could deal with general questions on anti-Semitism and people with ties to Hamas, but could not handle the naming of specific individuals such as Ibrahim.
She said she should never have agreed to the interview.
Ibrahim, who is in his seventies, attended a Die Linke election night event in the Neukölln district on September 20, the night of the Berlin state election.
He has been photographed with party figures including Bundestag member Ferat Koçak and local representative Vanessa Emde.
Berlin’s domestic intelligence service has classified the United Palestinian National Committee (VPNK), in which Ibrahim plays a leading role, as extremist. It is described as bringing together supporters of Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
Ibrahim has reportedly referred to the late Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar as a “martyr hero”.
Both Hamas and the PFLP are designated terrorist organisations by the European Union.
Die Linke has previously stated that neither Ibrahim nor the clan figure Issa Remmo, who also appeared at a related event, had been invited, and that the Neukölln gathering was open to the public.
Party members, including Koçak, have publicly distanced themselves from statements glorifying violence or terrorism.
Eralp herself has said the party has no relations with organised crime and that Israel’s right to exist is party policy.
Eralp’s spokesperson told Der Spiegel that the candidate has faced daily insults, threats and hostility for months.
Security authorities, the spokesperson said, advise against linking political problems to named individuals in public statements when media reports have associated those people with organised crime or terrorist organisations.
The office asked the magazine to take Eralp’s personal security interests into account.
Der Spiegel decided to publish the internal remarks, which were not intended for external release, citing the public interest.
The magazine noted that a potential governing mayor would shape Berlin’s security policy and questioned whether someone who declines to name individuals out of fear could take responsibility for the capital’s safety.
It warned about the peculiar situation Berlin is in right now.
“For a long time, it has been an open secret in the capital that security authorities are struggling to keep the situation under control. That there are neighborhoods, streets, and milieus where the state must fight for control—where their own rules apply and the German rule of law carries little weight,” the magazine wrote.
“It seems many in Berlin have come to terms with the fact that both organized crime and organized hatred of Israel have become entrenched here.”
“Can a woman who is too afraid to confirm the name of a terror sympathiser in an interview be responsible for the security of all Berliners?” it asked.
The magazine also spoke with Hendrik Hansen, professor of political extremism at the Federal University of Applied Administrative Sciences, who said that in the pro-Palestinian faction “everything problematic about the Left Party converges: Anti-Semitism, hostility toward the police, and an extremist variant of postcolonialism”.
“The Left Party is, in parts, a dangerous party. Extremists operate in several of its subgroups and factions, and it collaborates with extremists.”
Neukölln district mayor Martin Hikel, of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), criticised Eralp’s stance in comments to Bild: “If someone allows themselves to be constrained in this way, it shows how strongly these terror-glorifying, anti-Semitic forces are anchored in Die Linke and want to come to power with the help of Die Linke.” He added: “Our open-minded city cannot want this.”
Stefan Evers, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) leader in Berlin, told the same newspaper the revelations reinforced “the great concern” about a State government led by Die Linke and asked how Eralp could guarantee the security of millions of people as governing mayor.
Berlin CDU security spokesman Burkard Dregger told Bild: “If you get involved with Hamas criminals and their henchmen in Berlin, you should not be surprised if they claim their price for the campaign support granted.”
Die Linke secured 25.7 per cent of the vote in the September 20 Berlin state election, becoming the largest party in the city’s House of Representatives for the first time and putting Eralp in a position to seek a coalition with the Social Democrats and Greens. The CDU fell to 18.8 per cent, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) rose to 16.3 per cent, the Greens took 14.3 per cent and the SPD 12.1 per cent, its worst result in a Berlin election, according to the Federal Agency for Civic Education.
The SPD executive and a Greens party conference both voted on October 19 to open formal coalition talks with Die Linke. A Die Linke state party conference is due to decide on October 31 whether to do the same.
Coalition talks have already been complicated by concerns over anti-Semitism, contacts with controversial figures and events involving the Neukölln branch.
Eralp, a 45-year-old lawyer of Turkish descent who was born in Munich to parents who fled Turkey after the 1980 military coup, and a member of the Berlin parliament since 2021, would be the city’s first governing mayor from Die Linke and the first of Turkish origin if elected by the assembly.
20 SPD lawmakers, including former Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, oppose forming a coalition with Die Linke in Berlin, deepening party divisions over national security and anti-Semitism. https://t.co/l06kAAEkN0
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) October 19, 2026
