How does Berlin vote?: The ABC of power

A fD The party is far more bourgeois in Berlin than in Saxony-Anhalt, for example. According to the election program, they are also relying on “remigration” and are calling for apartments only for Berliners (this means German). But it has nothing to do with the formation of a government - even if the vote doubles compared to the 2023 election to the currently forecast 18 percent.

Building The rent problem is the central topic of this House of Representatives election. New construction is an answer to the ever-increasing rents, albeit an ideologically one-sided one. What is impossible, however, is that Berlin lacks apartments that could relieve the overheated rental market. The Senate's target of 20,000 new apartments per year was not nearly achieved in the current legislative period. Particularly dramatic: the number of urgently needed new social housing also falls short of the target. The “Build, build, build” mantra of the CDU and SPD against the rent crisis is little more than hot air. The space shouldn't fail: According to the urban development plan, there is enough for 249,000 new apartments - even without peripheral development on Tempelhofer Feld. ▶ Tempelhofer Feld

CDU The C here could also have stood for chaos. Shortly before the end, the party changed its top candidate because the current mayor, Kai Wegner, lied during the big blackout after the attack on a power cable bridge at the beginning of the year when he claimed that he would work tirelessly. Finance Senator Stefan Evers, who has also taken over the cultural department since April, has to step into the breach. This was necessary because two senators nominated by the CDU had previously failed in office. They had also caused chaos - in the allocation of funding for projects against anti-Semitism, which were awarded according to party political discretion. ▶ Schlendrian

Expropriation as a solution – or the end of red-red-green?

Tue., September 15, 2026, 7:00 p.m., taz canteen: Registration

The rent crisis is shaping the election campaign, but the question of socialization is dividing the parties. Almost a week before the Berlin elections on September 20th, we are looking into the questions: How can the SPD, the Left and the Greens pull together without ignoring the democratic mission of Berliners? Does the question of expropriation lead Berlin into a political dead end from which only the conservatives ultimately benefit? And what does expropriation actually bring?

Sebastian Schlüsselburg is a member of the House of Representatives, formerly for the Left, since 2025 for the SPD.

Katrin Schmidberger is a member of the House of Representatives and spokesperson for rent policy for the Alliance 90/The Greens faction.

Rouzbeh Taheri is the Neukölln direct candidate of the Left for the House of Representatives. He was co-founder and spokesman for the Deutsche Wohnen & Co Expropriate initiative.

Admission free. Seat reservation required

Participation in the taz canteen (Friedrichstraße 21) is only possible with a ticket booked in advance. We therefore ask you to register. Places are limited, entry is free. Access to the event is barrier-free. In addition, the event will be broadcast live.

Dirt surprise! During the doorstep campaign for the federal election, the Left Party discovered that Berlin is dirty. That the Berliners don't want the dirt. And because dirt is political, the left decided to make it a campaign issue. It has long been known in conservative circles that garbage can be a hot topic - the CDU won the last election with this issue. So now everyone wants to be clean. The election campaign becomes particularly dirty when it comes to other issues: internal security, anti-Semitism or the question of socialization. ▶ Socialization, ▶ Palestine

Elif The fact that the female first name, which comes from Turkish, has recently gained immense prominence in Berlin is of course due to Elif Eralp, the top candidate of the Left. And the fact that on their election posters the first name is written in large letters and Eralp in small letters can probably be seen as an invitation to be on first name terms. A friendly invitation to socialism. ▶ Zohran Mamdani

This text first appeared in wochentaz, our weekly newspaper from the left!

Every week, wochentaz is about the world as it is – and as it could be. A left-wing weekly newspaper with a voice, attitude and the special taz view of the world. New every Saturday at the kiosk and of course by subscription.

Airport One of the few issues on which all parties from the Left Party to the AfD agree: Everyone wants more direct connections at BER Airport to Asia or America. This is more sustainable than feeder flights to Frankfurt, said Werner Graf and Elif Eralp at a round of top candidates from Berlin's business community. ▶ Elif, ▶ Greens

Greens They could provide the governing mayor for the first time - but as things stand, they would still have to overtake either the CDU or the Left. Top candidate Werner Graf, who was once an employee of party icon Claudia Roth, would prefer a left-wing alliance, but would not oppose a Kenya coalition with the CDU and SPD - especially if his party was strongest in it.

Budget No matter who governs in the future: no one can avoid austerity in the next state budget. 4 to 6 billion euros will be missing from the future budget of around 40 billion euros after the current Senate has used up all reserves. But if the ax is put to social and cultural offerings again, things will get uncomfortable - especially for a possible left-wing alliance that wants to be an alternative to the black-red austerity Senate. Ideas to increase revenue are therefore urgently sought: higher parking fees or a luxury villa tax alone will not do the trick, even if they are better than nothing. ▶ Left alliance

Downtown What elsewhere is city versus village is in Berlin inner versus outer city, separated by the S-Bahn ring. The cliché says: Here the left-green bubble, there the conservative to right-wing surrounding area. And in fact, the habitual differences between trendy old building neighborhoods and lower-middle-class single-family housing estates can definitely be identified. In the 2023 House of Representatives election, voters' favor marked a large green spot surrounded by a black ring. But things won't be quite so schematic this time. Especially in the East, the Left is now fighting for majorities again, often against the AfD. And people's problems are often the same across the city: cheap rents are in short supply even in the prefabricated housing districts in Marzahn. ▶ Left alliance

Young voters For the first time, 16 and 17 year olds can also take part in the election for the House of Representatives on September 20th. That's up to 55,000 additional eligible voters. The more left-wing the parties, the more support can be expected here. In the symbolic U18 election before the 2025 federal election, two thirds of the votes in Berlin went to the Left, the Greens and the SPD - in that order. ▶ Left alliance

Krach Steffen Krach is the name of the savior who, coming from Hanover, is supposed to lead the social democracy back to its old Berlin greatness. The preliminary result: The SPD in its identity crisis is threatened with dwarfism. And the fact that the Hanover public prosecutor's office is currently investigating the SPD's top candidate is unlikely to help her either. Even if Krach rejects allegations that he was bribed in a procurement process. Krach relies on internal security, economic friendliness and the rejection of socialization - although the CDU already has these points. At the same time, the party, which has been involved in the state government for 37 years, is presenting itself in the election campaign as the force that will solve the rent crisis - even though the Left already exists. The Berlin SPD's nosedive could also cost its most prominent politician her head: Franziska Giffey, the current economics senator, who unnecessarily made her party the junior partner of the CDU in 2023 instead of governing at the top with the Greens and the Left, is fighting for a direct mandate for the House of Representatives without list security. It is by no means a given that she will win her constituency of Rudow in the south of Neukölln.

Left Alliance Berlin is considered a left-wing city, even if this description applies primarily to the city center. She is definitely liberal in the sense of “each according to his own style”. For the three center-left parties, there has been enough for a majority in every election since the fall of communism. But this often remained unused. Whether the Left, the Greens and the Social Democrats pull together this time depends on three imponderables: a) the will of the Left Party to be responsible for billions in government cuts; b) a change of course by the SPD on the issue of expropriation and c) sufficient trust from the Greens and the SPD that the Left is a reliable partner in the fight against anti-Semitism. ▶ Palestine

Rent Berlin has long been hot on the heels of the expensive metropolises of Munich and Frankfurt am Main when it comes to rents. Especially when signing new contracts, the Berliners have to dig deep into their comparatively empty pockets. The fact that new construction alone cannot bring rents under control should be understood by everyone, unless they make their money with shares in the Vonovia housing company. After things looked bleak for a long time even when it came to ideas for capping rents, a wide range of measures are suddenly on the table. A rent register has already been decided in which every apartment and every rent level should be noted. Stricter controls against rent usury are also being pushed forward. The trump card could be a housing management law favored by the Left and the Greens, which requires private landlords to re-rent some of their vacant apartments at fixed social prices. That would be a real interference with the free market and property rights. However, the pity of the 80 percent of Berliners who live in rented apartments for their landlords is likely to be limited. ▶ Building, ▶ Socialization

Non-voters More than 1.4 million Berliners, over a third of all people registered in the city, are not allowed to take part in the election for the House of Representatives. In addition to those under 16 and a few prisoners who are not allowed to vote, there are almost a million without German citizenship. Thanks to right-wing propaganda, they have played a major role in every election campaign for years: as social parasites and criminals who can be blamed for everything. A small consolation: at least EU citizens are entitled to vote in the elections that take place in the districts at the same time. There they can show what they think of right-wing scapegoating politics.

Olympics If it is clear on election night that the future state government will be led by the Left Party or the Greens, that will mean the end of Berlin's Olympic dreams. Because six days later, the German Olympic Sports Confederation will decide on a location for the German application - and it won't be a city whose leading forces reject an application.

Palestine One might assume that there are more important issues in Berlin's state politics than the Middle East. But that is sometimes a fallacy. For example, there are parts of the left, especially in the Neukölln district association, for whom the attitude towards Palestine is the all-important question. Then you invite a rapper who unbiasedly calls for the Intifada. And there are all those who have a lot of understanding for Israel and who carelessly suspect anti-Semitism of the strong Palestinian solidarity in the city with the largest Palestinian community outside of Gaza and the West Bank. Even if the left-wing leading candidate Elif Eralp tries not to answer the Middle East question one-sidedly and empathetically, an accusation of anti-Semitism against the left, whether used as a pretext or with serious concern, could ultimately put an end to a left-wing alliance. It is doubtful whether this would then help a just peace in the Middle East. ▶ Elif, ▶ Left Alliance

Agony Do you have to choose tactically in Berlin? In any case, there is no campaign like the one in Saxony-Anhalt to prevent AfD autocracy and there is no need to be spoiled for choice. Conscience can decide here with good cheer.

Governing Mayor Also known as “the Governing” in Berlin. Despite the different title as head of government of the state of Berlin, he is a full member of the circle of 16 prime ministers. At home in the Red Town Hall as the headquarters of the state government. And like Franziska Giffey (SPD) recently, she can also be a governing mayor. ▶ Elif

Schlendrian As the self-proclaimed “final opponent of Schlendrian”, CDU man Stefan Evers wants to go to the Red Town Hall. As a real finance senator, he also saved on data security. The city is now in trouble: millions of sensitive data have ended up on the dark web after a hacker attack. An attack on internal security the likes of which the city has never experienced before. And Stefan Evers? Is not the final opponent, but rather the slacker's sparring partner. ▶ CDU

Tempelhofer Feld An open space with almost 500 football pitches and, until October 2008, home to the inner-city Tempelhof Airport. An area now used by runners, skaters, cyclists and picnickers, and there are always plans for housing construction on the edge. But at the moment only the CDU wants that. In a referendum in 2014, a majority spoke out against building housing there. ▶ Build

Surveys They are currently just clarifying that nothing is clear. In the most recent surveys, the CDU and the Left Party are only separated by one or two points, both hovering around 20 percent, closely followed by the Greens and AfD. Only the SPD is lagging behind with 12 percent. Even on election night, it will only be clear who has become the strongest party, but by no means who will rule Berlin for the next five years.

Socialization The topic of socialization has accompanied the city for almost a decade. In 2021, 58 percent of Berliners voted in a referendum to socialize the holdings of large private real estate groups. Since then, implementation has been delayed. Now the strengthened left wants to make implementation a condition for a coalition. SPD top candidate Steffen Krach, on the other hand, does not want to join a government that aims for something like that. How about a compromise? The housing company Vonovia can keep a little more, but the Willy Brandt House will be transferred to public ownership? ▶ Build

Election security Because there were such major irregularities in the 2021 election to the House of Representatives that the election had to be repeated (which ultimately gave the city the black-red coalition, although a left-wing alliance led by the SPD would have been possible), the fear of irritation in this regard is great. And the desire for reassurance. In any case, after the recent hacker attack on the Berlin administration, people rushed to assure people that it had no influence on the election. ▶ Schlendrian

X The

Y The Ypsilon doesn't play a big role in Berlin, let's move on to the next letter, please.

Zohran Mamdani The mayor of New York is young, he represents a breath of fresh air and sees himself as a socialist. He made the transition in New York. In Berlin, the Left is hoping for the Mamdani effect with its top candidate. ▶ Elif