Der Spiegel is not to blame for the fact that Elif Eralp is afraid and the left has a problem within its own ranks. Even if parts of the left are currently trying to put this spin on it. They turn a blind eye to the fact that behind the article about Eralp there is a problem that goes beyond Berlin.

Clearly, it is questionable in terms of media ethics that Spiegel endangers the safety of a woman and her family for a new apocalyptic cover and monetary gain. The interpretation of its authors is also daring: a private comment on a Word document immediately leads to the conclusion that Eralp is unsuitable as mayor. But the Left shouldn't concern itself with that now if it is serious about its voter mandate.

Instead, she should finally take a look around her own party and its leadership. It could start on Saturday when the Berlin state party conference votes on further coalition negotiations with the SPD and the Greens. The party's internal state working group for Palestine Solidarity has already announced that it will protest in front of the building against the possible government.

It is the same working group that expressed solidarity with Ibrahim Ibrahim after the Berlin election. Eralp says about the activist and those around him: She and her husband are afraid of these people. The party should take this cry for help seriously, as it would any other woman who expresses fear of a man. Here it is a man who calls terrorists martyr heroes.

But the problem doesn't just lie with the party. After all, Ibrahim Ibrahim is not a member of the Left Party either; he only attends its election parties and speaks at demos with politicians from the Left. It is actually a strength of the Left that it mobilizes together with extra-parliamentary alliances. This can bring you close to people, their everyday lives and their problems.

It will be particularly bitter if even that doesn't happen. In January, an arson attack was carried out on the property of Brandenburg's anti-Semitism commissioner Andreas Büttner, then a member of the Left. After the attack, it took the party leadership three days to publicly comment on it. Büttner said at the time that this had “deeply hurt” him. However, it later emerged that the suspects came from his private circle. He has now left the party.

The left must take consistent action against the glorification of violence and authoritarian behavior within its own ranks and support those who are afraid of it. And she shouldn't forget why she won the election: because she promised the people of Berlin a better life - with neighborhood canteens, a clean city and affordable rents. How do you want to convince people to vote for the left in the future if it should be said: "Sorry, Hamas sympathizers glorifying terror and the Spiegel people got in the way. Unfortunately, now the CDU has to govern."