Voters in Germany's capital will elect a new local parliament on Sunday, with the winning party set to take first crack at forming a coalition to put forward Berlin's next mayor. The vote in long-divided Berlin is being closely watched for its wider impact on national politics. Here are the five key figures in the running:
The lead candidate for the far-left Die Linke, Eralp has campaigned against high rents in Berlin and made a controversial vow to expropriate apartment buildings owned by large corporate landlords. That has struck a chord, putting Die Linke, which traces its roots in part to the former East German communist regime, ahead in some polls and on the threshold of power for the first time.
Die Linke has long been strongest in the former East Berlin but has also made gains among young voters and in immigrant neighbourhoods. If Eralp's party finishes first, she will likely try to forge a left-wing coalition with the Greens and Social Democrats (SPD). Born in Munich to Turkish trade unionists who had fled their home country, the 45-year-old Eralp would be Berlin's first mayor with immigrant roots.
She worked as a lawyer advocating for immigrants and against racism before turning to politics.Eralp is sometimes compared to Zohran Mamdani, the charismatic left-wing outsider who became mayor of New York. Like his party, Die Linke has faced allegations of antisemitism over a dominant pro-Palestinian stance, which is at odds with the strongly pro-Israeli position of most mainstream parties in Germany.
Berlin's outgoing mayor, Kai Wegner, was ditched by his centre-right CDU party late in the campaign amid a long-running scandal over his handling of a mid-winter blackout in the city.The Christian Democrats instead tapped Stefan Evers, the city's current finance chief, as their standard bearer.
Evers has the CDU running neck-and-neck with Die Linke, with recent polls putting both at around 20 percent, though that would mark a considerable decline for the conservatives.Evers, 46, who usually sports a sober suit and thin-framed glasses, has run an understated campaign that reflects the party's buttoned-down and businesslike positions.
The CDU has long drawn support from voters in the leafy, well-to-do districts of the former West Berlin.Evers's track record includes painful budget cuts for the debt-ridden city. "Someone has to be sensible," reads one campaign poster for Evers, who hails from western Germany and calls himself "conservative and proud of it".
To become mayor, he would likely have to form a tricky three-way coalition with the SPD and Greens.
The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) hopes to pull off an upset and take the lead in Berlin, just two weeks after its resounding success in Saxony-Anhalt state.
It has been polling at around 18 percent, double the result last time, under lead candidate Kristin Brinker, an architect who has campaigned on concerns over crime and immigration.
The AfD is strongest in Berlin's outer east, an area largely dominated by communist-era prefabricated housing blocks. Brinker told AFP she would prioritise "local people", those "who have lived here the longest", for affordable social housing. She however has no chance of becoming mayor, since no other party would consider a coalition with the far right. Nonetheless, a strong showing for the AfD in the cosmopolitan capital would send shockwaves through Berlin politics.
Berlin's Greens are polling at 16 percent under lead candidate Werner Graf, who advocates more housing construction and classic Green issues like better bicycle lanes and public transport. The Greens have built a strong base in the city's trendy central districts. Graf, who speaks with the distinct accent of his native Bavaria, could become a kingmaker as his party may prove decisive in securing a governing majority for either Eralp or Evers.
The SPD ruled Berlin for more than two decades before being knocked from power in 2023 and ending up the junior partner in an awkward coalition with Wegner's conservative CDU. They have now pinned their comeback hopes on Steffen Krach, who until recently was a top political leader of the western city of Hanover.
Krach had previously worked in Berlin city government, and was seen as a relatively young and charismatic new face for the party.But a potential disaster looms, with the SPD polling at just 12 percent, and Krach the subject of an investigation into financial irregularities regarding a public contract back in Hanover, something he denies.
While the SPD could join in a left-wing coalition, Krach has come out firmly against Die Linke's plans to expropriate real estate firms.
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