Elif Eralp, candidate from Die Linke (The Left) for the mayoralty of Berlin, is living under threat after the German weekly Der Spiegel published an internal document from her party in which she herself acknowledged fearing for her life and that of her family due to individuals in her political environment with ties to Hamas and organized Arab crime in the German capital.
The scandal, revealed by Der Spiegel at the end of October, arose from a mistake by the candidate's team: while reviewing an interview before its publication—a common practice in Germany—they accidentally sent journalists the internal party document containing Eralp's private notes instead of the corrected version.
In those notes, the candidate requested the removal of any reference to Ibrahim Ibrahim, a pro-Palestinian activist being investigated by German intelligence for his involvement with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), an organization classified as terrorist by the European Union and the United States.
Ibrahim had attended the electoral party of Die Linke on September 20, 2026, the night the party won the regional elections in Berlin with 25.3% of the votes, more than double its previous result, displacing the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from the mayoralty.
In that same celebration, members of the Rammo clan —one of the largest organized crime groups in Berlin, linked to drug trafficking and money laundering— and representatives of the Barbaj clan, accused of antisemitic actions and violence against the police, were also present.
Ibrahim had also publicly praised Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas and one of the people responsible for the terrorist attacks on October 7, 2023, against Israel.
In her private notes, Eralp was explicit about the danger she felt: “My husband is afraid of these people, and so am I,” she wrote, adding: “I am not going to put either myself or my family at risk for Der Spiegel.”
The Criminal Police of Berlin had previously advised him to avoid mentioning specific names of individuals with those connections, revealing that the authorities were already aware of the seriousness of the situation.
According to El País, following the publication of the document, Eralp appeared before the media in the Berlin Parliament with a defiant tone: "I will not be intimidated by anyone," she stated, and promised to fight "against organized crime, the violent, and those who support terrorism" if she comes to govern the city.
This shift is striking for a party that during the electoral campaign promised to drastically reduce police forces in Berlin and eliminate local intelligence services, proposals they abandoned in October under pressure from the Greens and the Social Democratic Party (SPD).
The scandal occurs in a context of growing concern in Europe over the infiltration of radical pro-Palestinian groups —some with direct links to Hamas— into Western political and social structures, a situation intensified since the terrorist attacks on October 7, 2023.
In Berlin, this concern intensified in July 2026, when a 21-year-old linked to the city's Islamist scene drove a van into a crowd during Berlin Pride, killing a woman and injuring 29 others.
The CDU took advantage of the scandal to question Die Linke's ability to ensure the security of the capital and proposed to the Greens and the SPD the possibility of forming an alternative coalition without Eralp's party.
This Sunday, Die Linke is holding a congress in Berlin where Eralp must secure the ratification of the coalition agreement with the Greens and Social Democrats. According to German media, the candidate will appear before the hundred delegates under police protection.
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