The Left | Red Pellmann helps Red Help

Sören Pellmann supports Rote Hilfe by joining the organization. Photo: dpa/Lilli Förter Why Elip Eralp (Left Party) is not allowed to become the governing mayor of Berlin? Before the House of Representatives election on September 20th, she “ate chalk” and presented herself as a moderate. Unfortunately, its full radicalism is only now becoming apparent. There are fears that the city, with Elif Eralp in the Red Town Hall, would be “overrun by migrants from all over the world.” The SPD and the Greens should not pave the way for her.

This is what MP Gunnar Lindemann (AfD) complained on Friday. On Thursday, the Left, the Greens and the SPD held a first official preliminary discussion and want to talk further at an undisclosed date about whether and under what conditions they will enter into exploratory discussions that will lead to coalition negotiations.

AfD politician Lindemann accuses Elif Eralp of membership in extreme left-wing organizations. What is extremely left-wing for him is that in 2019 Eralp was one of the founders of Links-Kanax, a network of members of the Left Party with a history of escape and migration. The founding manifesto formulated the claim "that federal states with left-wing government participation should implement an open migration policy" and exploit all previously unused leeway "to prevent deportations and enforce the right to remain."

Eralp's parents fled to Germany in 1980 after a military coup in Turkey. The mother was pregnant. In 1981 she gave birth to daughter Elif in Munich. She later studied law in Hamburg and joined the Red Aid during this time. She wanted people who were committed to left-wing and social issues to receive legal assistance, even if they did not have the necessary financial resources. Eralp was a passive, i.e. paying, member. She left last year "because of partly different political views," even before the Berlin Left nominated her as the top candidate for the House of Representatives election, as the party announced. Eralp's membership is not a secret that has only just been revealed, but was clearly noted on its homepage and that of the House of Representatives.

»Summons, criminal warrant, trial, house search? “Red Aid provides political and material support during repression,” says the organization’s website. It is classified as left-wing extremist by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. With 2,650 members in Berlin alone, Rote Hilfe is said to be the largest left-wing radical organization there. For comparison: The Interventionist Left Berlin only has 240 members and, according to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, there are said to be 3,950 left-wing extremists in Berlin, including 650 who are violent.

The Red Aid does not commit violence, and the secret service admits that many members are not anti-constitutional. Among other things, the organization is criticized for paying a lawyer for demonstrators who are in court. However, support is withdrawn if the accused cooperate with the police or public prosecutor or apologize in court for the actions they are accused of.

»It must be possible for everyone in Germany to be defended in court proceedings.

Eralp's former membership in the Red Aid was not only discussed by the AfD. Various media reported about it. Bavaria's Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU) said that Eralp was therefore unsuitable as Governing Mayor of Berlin. Of course, their comrades see it differently. Sören Pellmann, left-wing faction leader in the Bundestag, demonstratively joined the Red Aid party. He justified this with the words: “It must be possible for everyone in Germany to be defended in court proceedings. This non-governmental organization exists so that people who have little or no money can afford it.

Pellmann shared a link to the Rote Hilfe membership form on the Internet. There it says in a preliminary remark: "The more members Rote Hilfe has, the better armed it is against attacks from the state and the better it can organize help for those affected by repression."

In addition to Pellmann, at least the Bundestag members Lea Reisner and Desiree Becker (both left) are in the Red Aid. Their membership is noted in the self-reported biographies of the two MPs.

In the past there have been repeated attempts to exploit the membership of politicians in the Red Aid. In 2007, the then Juso chairwoman Franziska Drohsel came under pressure and resigned. When the former PDS politician Angela Marquardt joined the SPD in 2008, there was the headline: “SPD newcomer defends Red Aid.” She replied: “Red Aid is indispensable help in the new federal states – among other things in the fight against right-wing extremism. That’s why I’m not discussing it.”

Norbert Müller (left) was accused of this in 2012 when he ran for the Bundestag and then again in 2013 when he moved up to the Potsdam state parliament. Brandenburg's Interior Minister Ralf Holzschuher (SPD) said at the time that Rote Hilfe was building a bridge to "imprisoned left-wing extremists who have committed crimes, so that they can seamlessly continue their previous political activities even after their imprisonment."

CDU parliamentary group leader Dieter Dombrowski said: "You can't just ignore it." The state parliament presidium should express its disapproval to Norbert Müller. Müller himself reacted with the assessment that the Red Aid was stigmatized by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution as “left-wing extremist” and said “nothing about those being observed, but rather about the observers.” The Office for the Protection of the Constitution is pursuing “targeted politics against left-wing, democratic forces.”

The Red Aid, which was re-established in the Federal Republic of Germany in the 1970s, has its model in an organization of the same name that existed from 1924 to 1936.

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