Die Berliner Landespolitik manövriert sich erst in eine Sackgasse und will nun doch daraus rausfinden. Wegen des Streits um antisemitische Strömungen in der Linkspartei stehen die Sondierungsgespräche mit SPD und Grünen auf der Kippe, werden aber heute fortgesetzt. Wie sich das rot-grün-rote Bündnis gegen den Widerstand von SPD und Grünen im Bund retten will, zeigt Maximilian Stascheit auf.

Auch die Bundes-SPD kämpft mit schlechten Umfragewerten und internem Frust vor dem anstehenden Parteitag im Dezember. Im 200-Sekunden-Interview erklärt der nordrhein-westfälische SPD-Fraktionschef Jochen Ott, warum seine Partei eine neue Vision braucht und wie der Weg aus der Krise aussehen soll.

Beim EU-Gipfel in Brüssel steht Europa derweil vor einem massiven Realitätscheck in der Ukraine-Politik. Die US-Unterstützung bröckelt spürbar. POLITICO-Experte Hans von der Burchard ordnet ein, welche Forderungen Wolodymyr Selenskyj morgen mitbringt und warum der Streit um den EU-Haushalt weitere Hilfen zu blockieren droht.

Das Berlin Playbook als Podcast gibt es jeden Morgen ab 5 Uhr. Rixa Fürsen, Maximilian Stascheit und das POLITICO-Team liefern Politik zum Hören – kompakt, international, hintergründig.

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**(Anzeige) Eine Nachricht von YouTube: Die Auffindbarkeit von Qualitätsjournalismus ist entscheidend für eine lebendige Medienlandschaft. 79 % der Medienunternehmen, die YouTube nutzen, an, dass digitale Videoplattformen ein wichtiger Vertriebskanal sind, so Oxford Economics. Und 81 % der Medienunternehmen mit YouTube-Kanal erreichen darüber weltweit neue Zielgruppen. Hier klicken und mehr erfahren.**

LONDON — Andy Burnham appeared to rule out cooperating with the Green Party on Wednesday, after the left-wing force passed a motion declaring that Zionism is a form of racism.

At prime minister’s questions in the House of Commons, Burnham condemned the motion approved at the Greens’ annual conference earlier this month, which defines Zionism as supporting “an ethnonationalist Jewish state.” Party members also backed a “single democratic Palestinian state in all of historic Palestine.”

Asked by Conservative Shadow Paymaster General Harriett Baldwin if he would rule out cooperating with the Greens, Burnham said: “We will always take the right response when it comes to any partnerships we have with other parties. We cannot support a partnership with a party that holds a position that has recently been adopted.”

On the motion, he said: “It is wrong. It is antisemitic, and this side of the house will have nothing to do with it.”

Burnham currently has a House of Commons majority, but a seat model by YouGov published last month suggests Labour would be the largest party in a hung parliament at the next general election — not due until the middle of 2029.

The Greens currently have five MPs in the Commons after winning their first by-election in Greater Manchester from Labour in February. Zack Polanski, the Green Party leader, failed to take the Holborn and St Pancras constituency from Labour in a by-election early this month, days after the party conference motion was passed.

A Labour party official was unable to immediately clarify what Burnham’s stance means for local government partnerships between Labour and the Greens.

Polanski said he wouldn’t have supported the motion but did not vote because he was campaigning in the contest. Senior party figures, including former leaders Caroline Lucas and Adrian Ramsay and Westminster leader Ellie Chowns, opposed the motion. Co-Deputy Leader Mothin Ali supported the motion.

In a joint statement after the vote, Polanski, the co-deputy leaders and party MPs said the Green Party “will never tolerate any form of discrimination or harassment.” It said, “there is no conflict between supporting the rights of Palestinians and the rights of Jewish people.”

Ein geheimes Abendessen bringt das Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht in Erklärungsnot: Fünf BSW-Abgeordnete speisen mit der AfD und dem rechtsextremen Publizisten Jürgen Elsässer. Während die BSW-Spitze tobt, wittert die AfD ihre Chance für die Ministerpräsidentenwahl in Sachsen-Anhalt. Wie ein raffinierter CDU-Plan den AfD-Kandidaten Ulrich Siegmund stoppen soll, offenbart einen beispiellosen Machtkampf.

Abseits der Ränkespiele eskaliert ein Streit um das Gedenken an den Terroranschlag von Halle. Jüdische Studenten verwehren dem Landtagsvizepräsidenten Hans-Thomas Tillschneider den Zutritt zur Synagoge – ein Eklat, der den AfD-Umgang mit Antisemitismusvorwürfen offenlegt. Zugleich spürt die Partei wirtschaftlichen Gegenwind, als BMW dem Landtagspräsidenten Tobias Rausch den Dienstwagen verweigert.

Auch beim Parteinachwuchs rumort es gewaltig: Im Bundesvorstand der „Generation Deutschland“ wirft Helmut Strauß nach wenigen Monaten hin. Der Grund sind Großmachtfantasien und eine gepostete Landkarte, die selbst in AfD-Kreisen als zu radikal gilt. Ein tiefer Einblick in die ideologischen Grabenkämpfe der Parteijugend, der zeigt, wo die rote Linie der AfD verläuft.

„Inside AfD“ ist der POLITICO-Podcast über die umstrittenste Partei des Landes. Trotz Radikalisierung und Beobachtung durch den Verfassungsschutz wächst die AfD weiter. Wie ist das möglich? Was treibt ihre Anhänger, Strategen und Gegner an? Wie funktioniert das Innenleben der Partei? Und was bedeutet ihr Aufstieg für das politische System Deutschlands?

Antworten liefern immer mittwochs Pauline von Pezold von POLITICO und Frederik Schindler von WELT — unaufgeregt, aber kritisch.

Fragen und Feedback gern an insideafd@politico.eu.

POLITICO Deutschland – ein Angebot der Axel Springer Deutschland GmbH
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Der überraschende Rücktritt erschüttert die Koalition: SPD-Arbeitsministerin Bärbel Bas gibt ihren Rückzug von allen Ämtern bekannt. Ausgerechnet kurz vor dem wichtigen Arbeitgebertag heute. POLITICO-Chefkorrespondent Rasmus Buchsteiner ordnet zusammen mit Maximilian Stascheit ein, wie diese Personalie das zerrüttete Regierungsbündnis belastet und warum mit der eiligen Ernennung von Alexander Schweitzer die Proporzregeln der SPD über Bord geworfen werden.

Währenddessen läuft in der Berliner Landespolitik weiter der Richtungsstreit. Die Linksfraktion im Abgeordnetenhaus streitet nach wie vor über den Umgang mit Antisemitismus und israelfeindlichen Protesten. Im 200-Sekunden-Interview stellt sich der Co-Vorsitzende im Bund, Luigi Pantisano, den Fragen zu offenen Briefen, fragwürdigen Demo-Aufrufen von Mitgliedern und erklärt, wieso er keine drohende Spaltung der Partei sieht.

Nach eigentlich viel zu langer Vakanz besetzt die Bundesregierung den Posten der Antisemitismusbeauftragten neu. Rixa Fürsen beleuchtet die Hintergründe der Personalie Katharina von Schnurbein und erklärt die Erleichterung bei vielen Beteiligten, weil die erfahrene Expertin aus Brüssel nach gescheiterten Anläufen mit anderen Kandidaten nun diese drängende Aufgabe übernimmt.

Das Berlin Playbook als Podcast gibt es jeden Morgen ab 5 Uhr. Rixa Fürsen, Maximilian Stascheit und das POLITICO-Team liefern Politik zum Hören – kompakt, international, hintergründig.

Für alle Hauptstadt-Profis: Der Berlin Playbook-Newsletter bietet jeden Morgen die wichtigsten Themen und Einordnungen. Jetzt kostenlos abonnieren.

POLITICO Deutschland – ein Angebot der Axel Springer Deutschland GmbH
Axel-Springer-Straße 65, 10888 Berlin
Tel: +49 (30) 2591 0
information@axelspringer.de
Sitz: Amtsgericht Berlin-Charlottenburg, HRB 196159 B
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Geschäftsführer: Christoph Eck-Schmidt, Carolin Hulshoff Pol, Mathias Sanchez Luna

**(Anzeige) Eine Nachricht von YouTube: Die Auffindbarkeit von Qualitätsjournalismus ist entscheidend für eine lebendige Medienlandschaft. 79 % der Medienunternehmen, die YouTube nutzen, an, dass digitale Videoplattformen ein wichtiger Vertriebskanal sind, so Oxford Economics. Und 81 % der Medienunternehmen mit YouTube-Kanal erreichen darüber weltweit neue Zielgruppen. Hier klicken und mehr erfahren.**

PARIS — Edouard Philippe was once seen as the only man capable of defeating Marine Le Pen in next year’s French presidential election. But his lackluster campaign as the country’s voice of reason is putting his allies on edge — and some of them are starting to wonder if he has what it takes.

The former center-right prime minister promised a “massive” campaign platform that would fix France, put its finances back on track and restore the country’s standing in the world. And while Philippe has upped his campaign tempo in recent weeks, his proposals tend to fall flat.

POLITICO spoke to six members of Philippe’s political family, some of them campaign team members, who shared doubts about his strategy and chances of success. Some were granted anonymity to speak candidly about internal matters.

“It’s unbelievable how nothing is making an impact,” a campaign official told POLITICO ahead of Philippe’s decision to announce his plans for a flagship pensions reform. “I can’t stop thinking about it.”

Philippe is still the best-placed mainstream candidate to challenge far-right Le Pen, who commands a substantial lead in the polls. But his poll ratings have stalled over the past year, and he is now locked in a tight race with far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon to clinch a second place which would qualify him for the runoff. MEP Raphaël Glucksmann, who trails the duo in most surveys, could see a boost for his campaign after scoring a decisive victory in the recent center-left primary.

Philippe is facing a pileup of problems: He has yet to unite the center behind him, remains burdened by a decade of centrist rule and is struggling to gain traction among voters with his pitch as the plain-speaking pragmatist fighting populism.

“Philippe is the most honest guy I know,” said an ally, “but he needs to unite and find a project that rallies people around him.”

Meanwhile, Le Pen and Mélenchon are dominating headlines with political one-upmanship and at times inflammatory proposals. The two populists locked horns last week over school protests, with Le Pen accusing Mélenchon of fueling the violence, and the far left positioning themselves as the protectors of France’s youth against police violence.

“The risk is great” that Le Pen and Mélenchon will squeeze him out of the race, Philippe’s ally added.

Stale marriage

Philippe, who left his position as prime minister under President Emmanuel Macron in 2020, has been planning his bid to succeed him for years. But things haven’t quite gone to plan on the campaign trail, where he has faced upsets and distractions.

When Philippe recently announced his unpopular proposal to push back the retirement age to 65, it was supposed to be a make-or-break moment in his campaign. Instead, it went almost unnoticed.

First, he was forced to delay his flagship announcement because Macron decided to address the nation about Russian threats and spiraling fuel costs. When he finally got round to it, it was overshadowed by antisemitism allegations against National Rally leader Jordan Bardella.

Ultimately, his 20-minute speech detailing his pensions plans on YouTube garnered only 70,000 views.

A day later, Mélenchon livestreamed a two-hour Q&A session with students from HEC, one of France’s top business schools. It got 550,000 views.

But according to Philippe’s campaign spokesperson Arnaud Péricard, the battle will be won in the long run.

“We’re not firing an arrow and then running away … Voters shouldn’t be underestimated; they can understand why our pensions system needs fixing,” he said. “But we aren’t mere accountants … We want a return of a powerful France that can lead on energy, industry; that’s why we need to balance our books.”

But a mix of economic realism and European ambition sounds all too familiar after a decade of Macron’s presidency — and even insiders know there’s little appetite for it. “There’s no desire for the centrist bloc. It’s a bit like marriage after 10 years,” said the same ally quoted above.

But for Philippe, a pro-European who was one of Macron’s coalition partners, there’s not much else he can offer.

“It’s difficult for the moderates: They know what state the country is in. They understand interest rates, debt and deficits,” said OpinionWay pollster Bruno Jeanbart. “They have to campaign as if things will get better, but it’s going to be difficult. We’ll have to work longer, accept more social spending, less benefits. There is no good news.”

Cornered

The silver lining for Philippe is that while he’s not doing too well, his immediate rivals aren’t doing any better. Conservative leader Bruno Retailleau is stuck on single-digit polling figures, while centrist Gabriel Attal, leader of Macron’s Renaissance party, has relentlessly campaigned throughout the summer but is still lagging behind and looks increasingly isolated.

Party insiders are confident Philippe will prevail, but admit the drawn-out centrist battle is dragging their champion down.

“We are at a bit of a standstill, and letting ourselves get boxed into a duel with Attal,” complained a senior official from Philippe’s Horizons party.

When Philippe and Attal announced their education proposals simultaneously last month, “people didn’t notice our proposals, they just saw the squabbling with Gabriel Attal,” the official added.

A member of Philippe’s campaign team said there was “little bandwidth” to make an impact because there were “too many” centrist candidates. “Maybe we’ll have to wait before addressing some campaign topics,” the official said.

In the coming weeks, Philippe’s team hopes to drain Attal’s support among lawmakers and local representatives, according to two allies, and force him to throw in the towel.

But that’s unlikely to provide Philippe with a much-needed boost, said a centrist senator, as enthusiasm is flatlining at the local level too. “There’s no real movement anywhere,” the senator said. “And the French aren’t really listening.”

Pauline de Saint Remy and Elisa Bertholomey contributed reporting.

Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican nominee for governor of Ohio, campaigned earlier this year at a church alongside an Islamophobic pastor who has preached that Muslims are building a “caliphate” in the U.S.; that “Satan” is using Islam to launch an “apocalyptic” and “multi-front war” against America; and that the global “rebellion of Islam” is led “by the Devil himself.”

Ramaswamy, a billionaire businessman and former presidential candidate, is currently trailing in the polls to Democrat Amy Acton in the state’s closely-watched gubernatorial race. Earlier this year, on May 21, he held a campaign stop at the Liberty Valley Church — which describes itself as a “Bible-Believing Non Denominational Patriotic Church” — alongside Pastor Jeff Tauring. 

Only two months before the event, according to a video reviewed by Talking Points Memo, Tauring delivered a Sunday sermon in which he told his congregation that the two main branches of Islam, Sunni and Shia, both posed existential threats to Americans. 

Ein drohender Linksruck in der Hauptstadt sorgt für handfesten Ärger auf Bundesebene. Während SPD und Grüne in Berlin ernsthaft mit der Linkspartei sondieren, blickt Friedrich Merz mit Sorge auf eine mögliche Regierende Bürgermeisterin Elif Eralp. Welche radikalen Forderungen im Raum stehen und warum der Antisemitismus-Streit in der Linken die Regierungsbildung zur Zerreißprobe macht, analysiert Maximilian Heimerzheim.

Beim Dauerbrenner Rentenreform verhärten sich die Fronten zwischen Union und SPD zusehends. Ein neues Sherpa-Treffen soll nun klären, ob das Rentenpaket aufgespalten wird oder langfristig gar ein Renteneintrittsalter von 70 Jahren droht. Rasmus Buchsteiner ordnet ein, welche Kompromisse der Kanzler bis Weihnachten erwartet und wer in den Verhandlungen auf der Bremse steht.

Im 200-Sekunden-Interview spricht CSU-Forschungsministerin Dorothee Bär über das europäische Kräftemessen im All. Parallel zum Staatsbesuch von Bundespräsident Frank-Walter Steinmeier und Emmanuel Macron in Bordeaux erklärt sie, wie sich Deutschland in der Raumfahrt behaupten will und warum Europa beim Flug zum Mond mehr Selbstbewusstsein gegenüber der NASA braucht.

Das Berlin Playbook als Podcast gibt es jeden Morgen ab 5 Uhr. Rixa Fürsen, Maximilian Stascheit und das POLITICO-Team liefern Politik zum Hören – kompakt, international, hintergründig.

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Geschäftsführer: Christoph Eck-Schmidt, Carolin Hulshoff Pol, Mathias Sanchez Luna

Getting into Gideon Joffe’s office takes some doing. Above the historic building in the heart of Berlin rises the golden dome of the New Synagogue, built in the 19th century. Out front, police officers ask who you are and where you’re headed. Past the first security door, your bag goes through a scanner. Then come more doors, all of them extra thick.

It’s not paranoia. Since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas and the outbreak of the war in Gaza, antisemitism has surged across the Western world, according to a study by Tel Aviv University. Berlin — where senior Nazi officials gathered at a lakeside villa in 1942 to coordinate the murder of Europe’s Jews — is no exception.

Joffe, 54, who chairs the Jewish Community of Berlin, one of Germany’s largest, has grown used to a life under protection. For decades, such security has been a fact of Jewish life across Europe, with synagogues and schools fortified and, in many cities, guarded by armed police. But the situation has rarely been as bad as it is now, he tells me. 

The Tel Aviv-born former businessman does not come across as a timid man: a firm handshake, a shirt straining at every seam and a deep and penetrating voice. Yet the mood at his conference table, where the community’s secretary general and its spokesperson also sit, is one of great concern.

The subject of that concern: The result of the recent Berlin election, in which the Left Party — a successor to the communist party that ruled East Germany until 1989 — came in first with 26% of the vote. It’s a record for the party in the capital, and more than double its previous result. Germany has been arguing about the consequences ever since. 

Among the trio sitting at the table, the Left Party’s Berlin branch is seen as not just radically left-wing but also a hotbed of antisemitism. The party made opposition to Israel’s war in Gaza a central plank of its election campaign. While some Jews have declared their support for the Left, leading Jewish institutions have criticized it.

At the center of the debate is Elif Eralp, the Left’s lead candidate in the Berlin election who has become the face of the party’s transformation. Under Eralp and a younger generation of activists, many with immigrant backgrounds in the Muslim world, the party has expanded well beyond its East German roots and built a new urban coalition around housing, inequality and opposition to the war in Gaza. 

Eralp and other prominent Left officials concede there have been troubling incidents among their supporters, and have condemned them. At a party conference shortly after the election, Eralp pledged to “strengthen the diverse Jewish life in Berlin and combat antisemitism.”

It was an acknowledgment of an issue that has been central to her effort to become mayor. In Germany, a single party is rarely strong enough to rule alone; forming a government means weeks of haggling among parties that dislike each other to varying degrees. If Eralp is to govern, she will need to form a coalition with the center-left Social Democrats and the Greens. Among their demands: “combating antisemitism and protecting Jewish life,” according to a joint statement by the two parties. 

“There needs to be a binding agreement that not only condemns antisemitism and affirms Israel’s right to exist, but also stipulates clear consequences for antisemitic incidents,” SPD state chair Steffen Krach told the German press agency dpa.

The Left’s new face

“Elif! Elif! Elif!” As the petite woman in the black bomber jacket enters the hall, her comrades rise from their chairs and chant her name in rhythm. “Elif for Berlin,” read the banners in big, bright red letters. Her first major appearance since the Sept. 20 election is in a small hall at the headquarters of Neues Deutschland, a newspaper that once served as the official mouthpiece of East Germany’s communist dictatorship. 

Eralp — a 45-year-old lawyer, mother of two and the daughter of Turkish socialists who fled to Germany in 1980, the year of a military coup in Turkey — is the new star of Germany’s hard left. She has thrilled young women and Muslim voters in droves. Her plea for economic justice, especially on Berlin’s crowded housing market, is what won the election, say her supporters. Critics say her success mainly depended on mobilizing pro-Palestinian activists, including some sharply hostile to Israel.

Eralp has been dubbed “Berlin’s Mamdani” by the press, and the comparison is more than cosmetic. Berlin’s Left borrowed from New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s playbook, right down to the political strategist who helped engineer his success: Morris Katz, a 27-year-old consultant who helped steer Mamdani to victory and flew to Berlin to coach Eralp this spring.

“If a leftist can win in New York, then one can just as well win in Berlin,” Eralp said after Mamdani’s 2025 election.

Where Mamdani, New York’s first Muslim mayor, promised city-owned grocery stores, Eralp promises neighborhood canteens with meals from €3. She wants a rent cap for the Berlin’s publicly owned housing and the “socialization” of big corporate landlords, taking public control of more than 200,000 apartments — which a majority of Berliners backed in a 2021 referendum. Mamdani had his potholes; Eralp has Berlin’s “garbage chaos.” Both have proven that rent bills and trash cans can win big-city elections. And both have had to rebut the same accusation of antisemitism, either personally or within their ranks.

Mamdani — a fierce critic of Israel who has called for the country’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be arrested — spent his campaign declining to condemn the slogan “globalize the intifada,” while saying he doesn’t use it himself and that it pains him to be called an antisemite. He eventually said he would discourage use of the phrase. 

Since taking office, Mamdani has also sought to address the concerns of Jewish New Yorkers. In late September, he announced his city’s first municipal strategy to combat antisemitism, vowing that Jews in the city would be “safe and celebrated.”

Eralp, who like Mamdani calls herself a “democratic socialist,” faces similar skepticism from much of her city’s Jewish community. While international debate about antisemitism in the country has focused on the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, since the election in Berlin, the controversy has centered on the Left.

The party’s Berlin platform explicitly opposes antisemitism, but Eralp’s critics are not interested in what’s on paper. Instead, they point to an unofficial picture assembled from numerous examples: a campaign poster demanding “Freedom for Palestine”; the Berlin youth wing of the party that attributes a “colonial and racist character” to the “Israeli state project”; a rapper who shouted “Yalla yalla intifada” and “Death, death to the IDF” — Israel’s army — at a campaign event; and the appearance of a leading supporter of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, an EU- and U.S.-designated terrorist organization, at a Left victory party in Berlin.

Opposition to Israel’s policies in Gaza is not the same as antisemitism, and Eralp has condemned the appearances of the rapper and the PFLP supporter, blaming local party officials. But that hasn’t convinced her critics. Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, has dismissed her expressions of concern about antisemitism as “lip service.”

Balancing act

Nowhere in Berlin has the Left changed more than in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, a borough of about 267,000 people. For decades, it was a stronghold of the Green Party. This time the Left won 44% there, more than double its previous result. The local party used to be run by old-school socialists, many of them veterans of the Socialist Unity Party, or SED, which ruled East Germany as a one-party dictatorship until the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. 

Today, it is driven by young activists who have expanded the party’s base into immigrant communities, above all among young Muslims. For many of them, the principles that have guided German politics since the Holocaust — the duty to protect Jewish life and solidarity with Israel — carry little weight, and some reject them outright.

That leaves Eralp with a delicate balancing act: reassuring Jewish Berliners concerned about elements of her party while holding together the coalition that helped propel it to victory. In her first major speech after the election, she tried to do both.

The Left’s vision of an affordable and good life, she said to applause, had been stronger “than all attacks and stronger than the hatred.” She would not be showered with insults by the “most unpopular chancellor of all time” — a swipe at Merz — and other politicians in the federal government. 

These centrist politicians, Eralp continued, were dividing the country, cutting labor rights and pensions and adopting the anti-migrant positions of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), the far-right party on track to secure its first state government after a breakthrough election last month. “While a fascist party in Saxony-Anhalt is on its way to power, these people seriously think they can stop a democratic party that stands for social justice, diversity and democracy with this smear campaign,” she said.

Next, Eralp presented an offer of reconciliation: The point was to “build bridges and bring people back together.” Then she offered a kind of self-criticism, but without getting specific. The Left, too, she said, must be clear “that there must never be calls for violence, and that statements that frighten Jewish people can never come from our platforms.” 

Here, too, there was applause. But quite a few listeners had their arms folded. Some wore Palestinian scarves, known as keffiyehs, around their necks.

Eralp was not available after the party meeting, and her party’s co-chair, Ines Schwerdtner, declined an interview.

“Leave this country”

Michael Wolffsohn has grim advice for Jewish Berliners. The prominent historian and conservative commentator was born in Tel Aviv to a family of Jewish merchants from Berlin, who fled the Nazis for Palestine in 1939. As a boy, he came back with his parents to West Berlin. 

In the magazine Cicero, Wolffsohn, 79, said what he would tell a young Jewish Berliner who asks whether to stay: with a heavy heart, “Leave this city and this country.” He himself, he added, was too old to uproot. Were he younger, he, too, would leave.

It is not hard to see why Berlin’s estimated 20,000 to 40,000 Jews are on edge. In the five years before the 2023 Hamas attack in Israel and the resulting war in Gaza, RIAS Berlin, a watchdog that tracks antisemitic incidents in the city whether or not they are crimes, logged just under 1,000 a year. Last year it counted 2,197. The police recorded an even steeper increase in crimes classified as antisemitic: from 381 in 2022 to 2,268 in 2025.

RIAS follows the definition of antisemitism laid out by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, counting conduct ranging from insults and graffiti to statements at demonstrations. It says it did not simply count criticism of Israel’s conduct in Gaza or of the Israeli military as antisemitic, but did so when the situation in Gaza was used to disparage Jews collectively, justify violence against them or trivialize the Holocaust.

Some incidents were violent. RIAS recorded 39 physical attacks in Berlin last year, 16 of them in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg. RIAS says multiple people who reported antisemitic incidents described becoming more cautious in daily life, including no longer openly wearing Jewish symbols after repeated harassment.

Speaking to POLITICO on the phone, Wolffsohn details his concerns: “Elif Eralp is the party’s star. But there is a broad base, and that’s what matters.”

Is the Left fit to govern the capital? His answer is categorical: “Is such a party capable of fulfilling the elementary task of a state — protecting its citizens, and not only the Jewish ones, at home and abroad? My answer is: No, absolutely not. The Left does not disqualify itself through opinions but through its demonstrable activities.”

Wolffsohn says he wouldn’t take a coalition contract at its word. Or a potential agreement that would commit all partners to fight antisemitism. “Paper is patient,” he says, using a German proverb: Paper will accept anything written on it.

At the moment, there isn’t even paper. Berlin’s leaders of the Left, the Social Democrats and the Greens have been meeting over the past week in “constructive” preliminary talks. They are gathering for a third round Wednesday, but have not yet agreed on a common line on antisemitism.

The trust test

Joffe, the chair of Berlin’s Jewish Community, extends the blame for rising antisemitism to Germany’s mainstream parties, which he says failed to tackle the problem. “I don’t know a single Jewish community member who is sure that his children or grandchildren will still be living in Germany.” A 2024 survey of more than 2,500 Jews across Germany found that more than half considered it unsafe to live visibly as a Jew in their city, while three-quarters said they felt less safe since Oct. 7, 2023. 

In his heavily secured office, Joffe says he understands why many people find Eralp likeable. “She’s nobody’s fool, and she knows how to express herself,” he tells me. “But the antisemitic spirits in her party — she probably won’t be able to get them back into the bottle.”

Joffe often pauses to choose his words carefully. “There have been many statements from the Left Party that have unsettled the Jewish community,” he says. “But I don’t want the issue of antisemitism alone to decide whether a coalition comes together in Berlin or not. Then conspiracy theories will just resurface that we Jews are so powerful we can even help decide who governs this city.”

His test for Eralp’s party is less about what the Left promises than about what happens in the capital in the coming years, especially in schools and kindergartens. 

The Left’s Berlin platform promises to fight antisemitism “effectively,” but also warns against the “instrumentalization” of antisemitism allegations. Joffe worries that its broader law-and-order agenda — including proposals to reduce police staffing, curb police resources and loosen restrictions on masked protesters — would make it harder to contain antisemitic intimidation and violence.

RIAS recorded antisemitic incidents at a record 239 rallies and marches last year. That’s four or five a week. On Sept. 27, 2025, the Left was among the groups that called for a Gaza march that drew up to 100,000 people. RIAS documented antisemitic incidents at the march and rally that followed, including placards equating Israel’s war with the Holocaust and chants of “child murderers” — language the watchdog says either trivializes the Nazis’ industrial-scale murder of six million Jews or draws on the centuries-old antisemitic blood-libel trope. 

To leave Joffe’s office, you walk back through the three security doors and past the police officers at the entrance.

“Our Jewish institutions are physically protected, but not defended against antisemitism,” he told me at the end of our conversation. “What do I mean by that? A cocoon was built around our kindergartens, schools and synagogues. But socially, nothing was defended.”

Eralp has promised to make Jewish life safer. Whether she can persuade people like Joffe that she means it — and can deliver — is another question.

Marc Felix Serrao is a Global Reporter with The Axel Springer Global Reporters Network.

The Axel Springer Global Reporters Network harnesses the resources of the company’s newsrooms to publish ambitious scoops, investigations, interviews, opinion pieces and analysis. It allows journalists — including those from POLITICO, Business Insider, WELT, BILD, Onet and Fakt — to collaborate on major stories for an international audience of hundreds of millions across platforms: online, print, TV and audio. 

STRASBOURG — French EU lawmaker Rima Hassan pushed back Tuesday against European Parliament President Roberta Metsola’s claim that Israeli and EU flags had been knocked over.

Metsola said before Tuesday’s votes that a member of the Parliament had been filmed on Monday evening “apparently damaging” an exhibition marking the Oct. 7 attacks.

According to Metsola, they were seen throwing an Israeli flag to the ground and dropping a flagpole, and an EU flag was also knocked over. She said both flags were left on the floor.

“We take this extremely seriously,” Metsola said, adding that “all appropriate steps” were being taken and that the individual concerned would have the right to give their side of the story.

She said Parliament could not tolerate property damage or actions that could be seen as intimidation.

“At a time of rising global antisemitism, we owe it to Europe’s Jewish community to ensure that when they look to us, they see that this is their house too,” Metsola said.

Metsola did not announce any sanctions or name the individual. A spokesperson for the president said the procedures under consideration could include sanctions, while a Parliament spokesperson said the next steps included hearing from the lawmaker concerned.

Hassan, a lawmaker from the France Unbowed party and the European Parliament’s Left group, responded from the floor minutes later, accusing Metsola of making comments that were “factually false.”

Hassan said the exhibition had been organized in partnership with the Israeli embassy and defended her opposition to the presence of the Israeli flag in the Parliament, comparing it to displaying a Russian flag given Moscow’s war on Ukraine.

A Parliament spokesperson did not confirm whether the event was organized in conjunction with the Israeli embassy, saying the center-right European People’s Party had arranged it.

She also alleged that the event featured a map depicting a “Greater Israel” and that organizers had told her the Palestinian people and Palestine do not exist.

Those claims could not immediately be independently verified.

The exchange followed accusations on Monday night from French center-right lawmaker François-Xavier Bellamy, who said Hassan had thrown both the Israeli and European flags to the ground and called for her to be sanctioned. Parliament Vice-President Pina Picierno also accused Hassan of trampling the flags.

Hassan confirmed in a statement that she had removed the Israeli flag from its stand, but the EU flag had inadvertently fallen over due to a loss of balance. She added that neither was damaged and that she had written to Metsola to set out her version of events.

“I did not touch the European flag,” she also told the chamber.

The exhibition was organized ahead of the third anniversary of the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage.

Under Parliament’s rules, sanctions for serious breaches can range from a reprimand to the loss of daily allowances or temporary suspension from some parliamentary activities.

PARIS — Far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen offered her usual recipe for pulling the French economy from the brink of a debt crisis when she presented her plan Tuesday: curbing immigration, cutting contributions to the European Union and slashing red tape.

“If the French do not choose a political about-face, France will head toward default,” Le Pen said at a lengthy press conference at her National Rally party’s headquarters.

Le Pen spent much of her opening speech attacking what she called President Emmanuel Macron’s “disastrous track record” on the economy. For her, the event was an opportunity to cast herself as a responsible steward of the economy as France’s public finances fall deeper into the red, and erase a tumultuous week that saw her protégé, Party President Jordan Bardella, accused of authoring antisemitic views in his youth.

But critics were quick to argue her plan lacked crucial detail on one of her most costly campaign pledges: the promise to bring back France’s legal retirement age to 62, which is currently set to increase to 64. 

Bardella, who stood by her at the press conference, struggled to draw a line under the antisemitism allegations that have been leveled at him. Le Pen left him to face the rolling barrage of questions about his alleged antisemitic Facebook messages and his ability to continue the campaign. 

On stage, the duo presented their counter-proposal for next year’s budget, about to be negotiated in Parliament, as well as Le Pen’s proposed five-year, cost-cutting package. The far-right leader hinted she was ready to be more lenient towards the government this time around and not topple it during upcoming budget negotiations.

“As imperfect as it is, the pressure [from financial markets] is such that we can’t afford to have blanket red lines … knowing that this budget will only apply until the election and that we can amend it afterwards,” she said in answer to a question.

She also promised €140 billion in net savings over the course of a five-year term, if she is elected president. “If investors only lend at exorbitant rates, our state and our social system will collapse,” she said.

Le Pen’s proposal to cut €19.5 billion from France’s EU contributions by 2031 is bound to set up a showdown with Brussels. The party’s counter-budget proposal for 2027 includes an €11.1 billion cut in France’s gross contribution to the bloc as early as next year.

Jean-Philippe Tanguy, a National Rally lawmaker widely seen as a contender for economy minister should Le Pen win next year’s presidential election, said that Le Pen and her party would ramp up pressure for a fundamental rethink of EU priorities, rather than just renegotiating the country’s annual contribution.

“We are not only asking for a rebate; we are asking for the cancellation of entire programs,” Tanguy said, citing EU foreign policy initiatives but also EU funds deployed within pre-accession programs.

During past presidential campaigns, Le Pen and the National Rally have been criticized for floating unrealistic and unfunded proposals that lack important details. They’ve also been accused of inflating savings in some proposals — meaning the numbers unveiled Tuesday will likely be heavily scrutinized.

Center-right presidential hopeful Edouard Philippe lampooned her plan Tuesday as being “spectacularly flippant”.

“To make savings, you make up billions. But reality will always catch up with you. What you offer does not add up,” he wrote. 

Devil is in the details

Le Pen said slashing immigration would save €15 billion in the first year of her presidency, and €14 billion in the second. 

She also said reorganizing France’s social security system would bring in a staggering €36.7 billion over five years, which also needs to absorb the cost of her flagship pension promise.

In August, Le Pen doubled down on her past pledge to lower the age of retirement back to 62, which she says will come at a cost of €9 billion per year. But that number is largely seen as an underestimation, with fiscally conservative think tank Institut Montaigne putting it at €34.7 billion.

Le Pen said other, yet undefined changes to the pension system would save €15–20 billion, promising to lay out its plans in detail at a later stage.

Hadrian Camatte, a specialist with the French investment bank Natixis, said Le Pen was being “overly-optimistic” and that the National Rally’s plan to cut billions on state spending was “massive, huge.”

“It will be very complicated if even [the party] are very aggressive regarding state agencies or state bodies,” he said. 

She said she would put a so-called fiscal “golden rule” to a referendum, which would bind lawmakers and the government in setting the budget, similar to the way the German debt brake works.

Le Pen’s version would instead require successive governments to reduce France’s public debt as a share of gross domestic product each year until it reaches 60% — nearly half its current level. In practical terms, France could still run budget deficits, provided they are small enough for the debt burden to keep falling relative to the size of the economy.

Le Pen also said that she planned to introduce a funded component into the pension system, under which a worker’s contributions are invested for their future retirement rather than paying for current retirees — a proposal that had been pushed by the National Rally’s more pro-business wing.

A pair under pressure

Sold as a winning ticket, the Bardella-Le Pen duo came under intense scrutiny during their second public appearance Tuesday when the antisemitism allegations were leveled against the party president. 

Le Pen, the front-runner in the race to replace Macron next year, did not rush to Bardella’s defense during the press conference, declining to respond to the allegations. Instead she launched into a defense of another National Rally official Jean-François Jalkh, who has faced accusations of Holocaust denial. 

Bardella meanwhile went on the offensive: “I imagine you would have loved to see me bow down, but that’s because you don’t know me,” he said. 

He accused Mediapart, which published the report, of trying to dig up dirt on him by asking his former classmates to send screenshots of private conversations when he was as young as 12.

“I won’t accuse you of perversity, others will judge, but it doesn’t look like your little operation is having an impact in the country,” he said.

Bardella also said his party was looking into taking legal action against Mediapart.