In the state parliament elections in Germany’s state of Berlin, the Left Party, which nominated Elif Eralp as its candidate for minister-president, came first with 25.7% of the vote, achieving the best result in its history with a 13.4-point increase compared with 2023.
- CDU: 18.8%; down 9.5 points.
- AfD: 16.3%; up 7.2 points.
- Greens: 14.3%; down 4.1 points.
- SPD: 12.1%; down 6.3 points.
BSW failed to clear the 5% threshold with 4.7%, while FDP remained at 2.5%. In the 159-seat parliament, the Left Party won 47 seats, CDU 35, AfD 29, the Greens 26 and SPD 22. CDU-SPD lost its majority. Two different coalition options emerged, while CDU rejected a coalition with the Left Party and AfD. Party members celebrated with Turkish songs.
Why it matters
The results show that the previous CDU-SPD majority in Berlin could not be maintained and that the calculations for forming a government need to be reconsidered. Although the Left Party’s first-place finish has placed the political line represented by Elif Eralp’s candidacy for minister-president at the center of parliamentary arithmetic, CDU rejects forming a coalition with the party. Despite AfD’s rise, CDU’s exclusion of cooperation with the party also prevents the distribution of seats from automatically turning into a governing formula. BSW’s failure to clear the threshold and FDP’s exclusion from parliament mean that negotiations in the new term will be conducted around the balance among the five parties that entered parliament; however, it has not become clear which of the two announced options will be implemented.
Background
Berlin is not a new name in the FikirPilot archive: we have published 3 reports mentioning the name in the past 90 days; the latest is dated September 28, 2026.