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HEIST x Refuge: A guide to Berlin's 2026 Election

A party by party preview.

By Staff

Ahead of Berlin's extremely important state elections on Sunday 20th September, we teamed up with HEIST, a worker-owned online magazine founded earlier this year. With the election less than two weeks away, we have a guide to every major party — the candidates, the big issues, and what they're not saying. Who is dying to build on Tempelhofer Feld? Who wants you to leave the country? Who promised a rent cap in their first week in office?

For the full guide, head to HEIST's dedicated election page.

Image: HEIST design, Bohao Zhao, Ferran Cornellà, CC BY-SA 4.0

THE CDU

Slogan DE: Berlin wird. EN: Berlin becomes

Mayoral candidate: Stefan Evers, (born 1979). Big issue: Fiscal responsibility

Last election, the CDU rode to power on the back of a media frenzy over the Silvesternacht riots. And you get the feeling they've been hunting for an equivalent issue this time, too. They appeared to sense an opportunity with the "Berlin autofrei" referendum, but that failed before it could reach the ballot. Then, after the attack on Pride, they started talking up Islamist terror as the city's central threat. But failing some clear threat to punch against, they've settled instead into a vaguer positioning as the "sensible" party. For that to stick, it's best not to dwell too closely on the fact that their own first term back in power in two decades has been one of the most scandal-ridden in memory. Ultimately: they're offering austerity dressed up as competence. Something you can trust them on: They really do want to build on Tempelhofer Feld.

Something you can't trust them on: Fiscal responsibility.

THE GREENS

Slogan DE: Keine Versprechen. Ein Plan für Berlin. EN: No promises. A plan for Berlin.

Mayoral candidate: Werner Graf, (born 1980).

Big issue: It’s in the name, y’all. 

Die Grüne are focused on green policies and environmental justice. They want to invest more in buses and trains, restrict traffic in some neighbourhoods, halt the A100 motorway, ban private jets at BER, plant one million trees, and create cooling spaces on playgrounds.

They’re reviving an age-old Green proposal: a Berlin “climate ticket” that works nationwide, and costs just €9 monthly for low-income people or nothing for students or people doing voluntary service.

Something you can trust them on: They do care about environmental justice.

Something you can't trust them on: Having the backbone to do anything about it.

DIE LINKE

Slogan DE: Berlin bezahlbar machen. EN: Make Berlin affordable.

Mayoral candidate: Elif Eralp (b. 1981)

Big issue: Housing and affordability.

There's no better target for a cost-of-living-crisis campaign than proclaiming that the rent is too damn high (save for maybe mentioning döner prices). Die Linke has committed to carrying out the housing expropriation referendum put forth and won by Deutsche Wohnen & Co Enteignen in 2021, which would socialise some 240,000 apartments away from private landlords. They've also promised a rent cap for 400,000 state-owned apartments and a task force against rent gouging. Also filed under affordability, just a little further down, is a pledge to bring back the €9 social ticket for BVG and a plan to introduce a luxury property tax. Eat the rich, etc. They also oppose Chancellor Friedrich Merz's reforms to the healthcare and pension systems, on the grounds that they'll end up straining the budget of regular hard-working citizens.

Something you can trust them on: Tackling rents. Eralp has pledged to reintroduce a rent cap on Berlin's 400,000 state-owned apartments within seven days of taking office, providing relief to roughly 800,000 tenants — about a quarter of the entire rental market.

Something you can't trust them on: Sticking together. The party loves to fragment into new parties and sub-factions – and the attacks over expropriation and Gaza already exposed some fractures.  

THE AfD

Slogan DE: Berlin. Stark. Machen EN: Make. Berlin. Strong.

Mayoral candidate: Kristin Brinker (born 1972)

Big issue: (Re)migration.

There shouldn't be any doubt about the AfD's intentions: they're stated plainly in the manifesto, which includes plans for Berlin to get, essentially, its own version of ICE. They want to add the words "Asyl und Remigration" to the Landesamt für Einwanderung — that is, bake their single most controversial policy directly into the name of the government office that handles your visa. And more than that, they want to give the office its own mini-militia, a dedicated enforcement unit, tasked specifically with accelerating the deportation of foreign nationals.

Where would all these people be processed? Their manifesto also includes plans to build new "departure centres" where anyone the AfD judges to be in Berlin illegally would be housed, while asylum seekers generally would be barred from normal housing and confined to collective shelters.

Part of their plans also include stripping citizenship from dual nationals convicted of crimes, in direct conflict with the German constitution, which prohibits revoking citizenship.

Something you can trust them on: They really do want you to leave the country.

Something you can't trust them on: Obeying the law.

THE SPD

Slogan DE: Wieder Berlin. EN: Berlin Again

Mayoral candidate: Steffen Krach (b. 1979)

Big issue: Housing.

Berlin's spiraling rent is top-of-mind with many voters, and Krach has tried to score points with tough sloganeering such as posters declaring that the "Mietenwahnsinn endet jetzt!" ("the rent madness ends now!"). But expropriating big landlords is squarely off the table for Krach, who has dug his heels in so much over the issue that he claims he'll block such a measure as a condition of coalition. According to him, other measures like better rent control enforcement and new construction would be more effective and affordable. So maybe the Mietenwahnsinn will have to end morgen, after all.

Something you can trust them on: Maybe the best thing you can say about them is that they're so unreliable, you can't even trust them to be bad at their jobs. They've promised to oppose Die Linke in coalition over expropriation, but no one would be surprised if they buckle here, too.

Something you can't trust them on: Not being in government. Good or bad, the next coalition will have the SPD in it.

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