Elif Eralp, the far-left politician expected to become Berlin’s next governing mayor, privately wrote that she and her husband are afraid of pro-Palestinian activists with ties to Hamas, according to internal notes her office sent to Der Spiegel by mistake.
The German news magazine published the notes on Thursday in a cover story. The revelation came days before Eralp’s Die Linke party votes on opening formal coalition negotiations with the Greens and the Social Democrats.
The episode began with an interview Der Spiegel conducted with Eralp on Monday. When the conversation turned to antisemitism allegations surrounding her party, the reporters asked whether she was referring to Ibrahim Ibrahim, an activist who has called slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the architect of the October 7 massacre, a martyr hero. Eralp answered yes.
German media describe Ibrahim as a leading supporter in Germany of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and a figure in the United Palestinian National Committee, a group formed after October 7 for supporters of Hamas and the PFLP. He attended Die Linke’s election night party in Neukölln on September 20, where he was photographed alongside Bundestag member Ferat Koçak.
Under German press practice, interviewees may review and approve their quotes before publication. When Eralp’s spokesperson returned the approved transcript on Wednesday, the question about Ibrahim and her answer had been deleted. The Word file still contained comments from Eralp, her spokesperson and Berlin party chair Kerstin Wolter.
In one note, she wrote that neither she nor her husband wanted to name specific people. “He is afraid of these people, and so am I,” she added. She recalled that Berlin’s State Criminal Police Office had once advised her never to name individuals when discussing organized crime, and wrote that the issue now involved people with ties to Hamas. “I can’t put myself and my family in danger for Der Spiegel,” she wrote, before asking her staff whether they should cancel the interview altogether.
According to the magazine, her spokesperson pointed out that interviewees may change their own answers but not the journalists’ questions. Eralp replied that she should never have agreed to the interview.
Her office asked Der Spiegel to take her personal security into account, saying she has faced daily insults and threats for months. The magazine said it weighed that request against the political significance of the notes and decided to publish.
Speaking at the Berlin House of Representatives on Thursday, she did not dispute the contents. She said private internal material had been published and that worrying about one’s family is normal. “I will not let anyone intimidate me,” she said, pledging to ensure the safety of all Berliners as governing mayor. Politico, citing party sources, reported that she plans legal action against Der Spiegel and a complaint to the German Press Council.
Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, told Der Spiegel that the fear Eralp appears to feel shocked him but did not surprise him. Greens co-leader Felix Banaszak said it was shocking that a possible future mayor is so afraid of extremists and organized crime that she cannot clearly say where the danger comes from.
Berlin SPD leader Steffen Krach said the episode sends a “devastating signal” about the fight against organized crime in the city, but indicated his party would keep talking. CDU mayoral candidate Stefan Evers urged the SPD and Greens to end negotiations, saying the notes show Eralp is compromised. Union parliamentary leader Thorsten Frei also called for the talks to be broken off.
Die Linke’s national leadership closed ranks behind Eralp and turned on the magazine. Party veteran Gregor Gysi called Der Spiegel’s conduct despicable, and Bundestag Vice President Bodo Ramelow said it deliberately harmed someone who already felt unprotected. Several Berlin Greens expressed sympathy for Eralp and said they did not expect the episode to derail negotiations.
Die Linke won the September 20 state election with 25.7 percent of the vote, becoming Berlin’s largest party for the first time. Eralp, 45, campaigned as the strongest counterweight to the far-right AfD and has repeatedly pledged to protect Jewish life in the city. After the election party, she distanced herself from Ibrahim, saying that celebrating violence and terrorism was unacceptable.
The campaign and the talks that followed have been shadowed by antisemitism controversies, including a performer at a Die Linke campaign event who led chants against the IDF, and newly elected Neukölln lawmaker Vanessa Emde, who said states have no right to exist, only people do. The SPD and Greens had demanded that Emde be kept out of the Left’s parliamentary group, but she was admitted anyway.
For Eralp’s critics, the notes raise a question that goes beyond one interview: whether the woman likely to oversee Berlin’s police can confront networks around her own party when she feels unable to name a man who praised the planner of the October 7 massacre.
Die Linke’s state party conference votes on Saturday on whether to begin formal coalition negotiations.
