Debate after the election: Eralp: Will ensure the safety of all Berliners

In a Berlin report by the magazine Spiegel, ruling Green Party candidate Elif Eralp expressed concern for the safety of her family if she explicitly spoke out about a known Palestine activist. This concern emerged from internal notes from an interview Spiegel conducted with her. The document containing these comments was mistakenly sent to Spiegel alongside Eralp's office remarks.

Eralp, who aspires to become Berlin's mayor, and her party, the Left, did not want to comment initially. Spiegel interviewed Eralp on Monday and sent a written version of the interview to her spokesperson for authorization. A day later, the interview with comments and annotations was returned. The magazine reports that Eralp's stance on antisemitism within her party was not fully aware of the extent of the problem.

Spiegel notes that she knew many of her party friends in Neukölln were very active on the Palestine issue, but she did not anticipate potential cross-border incidents at individual events during the election campaign. A whole question and answer was removed from the interview. According to Spiegel, the question referred to Ibrahim Ibrahim, a Hamas supporter who referred to the chief planner of the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel as a "martyr hero" and was present at a Neukölln election rally.

Eralp reportedly said yes. The authorized version of the interview, along with Eralp's comments on organized crime (OK) and contacts with Hamas, has been removed from the Spiegel report. Internal notes from Eralp mention the recommendation not to name specific individuals, citing organized crime. The question asked if she wanted to risk herself and her family for Spiegel, and the question of whether to cancel the whole interview.