The Left | Eralp's colorful team

Top candidate Elif Eralp and state chairwoman Kerstin Wolter (r.) come to the first meeting of the new left-wing faction in the Berlin House of Representatives on Tuesday. Photo: dpa/Bernd von Jutrczenka The old left-wing faction in the Berlin House of Representatives counted 20 people. After the record result of 25.7 percent in Sunday's election, the new parliamentary group consists of 47 people. Only eight of them have been members of the House of Representatives so far, five since 2016 and three since 2021. But parliamentary group leader Tobias Schulze is not worried about the many newcomers, on the contrary.

»This is a very exciting group with many new people who bring very different professional experiences to political work. These include people from social work, teachers and also people from the healthcare sector,” says Schulze, who is one of the five MPs who have been sitting in parliament since 2016. Schulze is convinced: “The experienced and new MPs will quickly work well together.”

»The experienced and new MPs will quickly work well together.«

The outgoing, remaining and new members of parliament meet on Tuesday afternoon in room 306, the banquet hall of the House of Representatives, which is housed in the old Prussian state parliament. The left-wing faction elects top candidate Elif Eralp as its chairwoman. She forms a dual leadership with Tobias Schulze. If a red-red-green coalition can be negotiated, Eralp should become the governing mayor and move to the Red City Hall. Putting the leadership of the parliamentary group in her hands is a political signal that the MPs are behind her.

It is very likely that the composition of the left-wing faction will change soon. Because unlike the CDU and SPD, the Left and the Greens have a separation between office and mandate. It is common for senators and state secretaries and, if necessary, a governing mayor to resign their mandates and for someone else to replace them in the parliamentary group. Further changes will occur if members of the Left become district mayors or city councilors.

In the Marzahn-Hellerdorf district council, the AfD now has 20 of 55 seats and, as the strongest faction, theoretically has the right to fill the post of district mayor. But other factions can form a counting community and outperform the AfD. This means that the right to make suggestions is transferred to the counting community. The Left is the second strongest faction with twelve members.

The AfD's strong performance means that all democratic forces are called upon to stick together and work together constructively for the benefit of Marzahn-Hellersdorf, says Left district chairman Kristian Ronneburg. He announces: »The Left is ready to take responsibility for Marzahn-Hellersdorf. With Sarah Bigall as a candidate for district mayor, we will begin discussions with the democratic parties about forming a counting community. Our goal is a reliable majority for the social and democratic development of our district.«

But if Sarah Bigall becomes district mayor, she would give up the seat she won on Sunday in the House of Representatives. The Left is entitled to 23 city council positions across Berlin – more than ever before. So far, Social City Councilor Sarah Nagel in Neukölln was the only city councilor from the Left in one of the Berlin districts that belong entirely to the old West Berlin. But this form of division in the city is history. The Left has now fully established itself in the west, where in most districts it had to be content with a few district councilors and could only dream of city council positions. Even in Steglitz-Zehlendorf, where this was least thought possible, the time has now come.

Among the many newcomers to the left-wing faction, some are anything but new to politics, such as the two state chairmen Kerstin Wolter and Maximilian Schirmer as well as state managing director Bjoern Tielebein. Many have had experience in district council meetings; Antonio Leonhardt was left-wing faction leader in Lichtenberg, Maria Bigos was left-wing faction leader in Pankow, to name just two examples. Rouzbeh Taheri has never sat in parliament and is still better known than many other members of parliament. This is due to his long-standing political commitment, once in the PDS, finally in the Electoral Alternative Work & Social Justice and, above all, in the popular initiative to expropriate Deutsche Wohnen & Co. Taheri was most recently managing director.

The left faction is a colorful group. There is the 55-year-old bus driver Ekkehard Spiegel and the 22-year-old Asya Şenyüz, an office management clerk by profession. There is Pilar Caballero Alvarez, born in Berlin to Spanish parents, and Betül Havva Yılmaz from the Workers' Party of Türkiye. She went into exile in Germany because she did not want to remain silent about the oppression of the Kurds in her homeland.

Martha Kleedörfer attracted attention during the election campaign because she spoke Arabic in an election commercial. "I'm Martha Kleedörfer and I'm your candidate in Wedding," she introduced herself. »Together we fight for affordable rents and against racism. We are fighting for solidarity with Palestine. A day before the election there was another spot in Hebrew. Then Kleedörfer said: “We are fighting against fascism and the AfD. We stand together with Jewish partners against anti-Semitism and racism. We stand against Israel's crimes. But we do not hold the Israelis in Berlin responsible for what the Israeli government is doing. The Israeli community is an essential part of life in Berlin.«

The biggest surprise in the left-wing faction might be Thomas “Tommi” Wulfes. Completely unexpected for himself and everyone else, the 27-year-old won a constituency in the Spandau district.

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