Commentary: Berlin Left Party candidate Eralp should not be blamed for Red Help membership

Commentary by Marie Frank

A left-wing lawyer was a member of a left-wing legal organization — where is the scandal? Elif Eralp has nothing to be ashamed of. Quite the opposite.

Published: September 30, 2026 — 8:18 PM

The efforts by bourgeois-conservative to right-wing forces to prevent a state government led by the Left Party in Berlin are almost laughable — so transparent and desperate do they appear. The latest "scandal"? Left Party lead candidate Elif Eralp was a member of the Red Aid (Rote Hilfe). Good heavens — a left-wing lawyer was a member of a left-wing legal organization — who would have thought?

As a member of the Red Aid myself, I say: That sounds commendable. After all, in times of a general shift to the right, it is more important than ever to stand up for left-wing activists who suffer from political persecution, police violence, and right-wing terror. Anti-fascism is currently under massive pressure, and solidarity is the most important weapon against it. Moreover, legal support for defendants is a matter of course and desirable in a democracy — even when it concerns leftists accused of crimes. Lobbying for one's own cause is also entirely normal in civil society, even when that cause is anti-fascism.

So why the uproar? Because the Office for the Protection of the Constitution classifies the Red Aid as "left-wing extremist." This assessment comes from an authority that, since the Nazi era, has been infiltrated by Nazis like no other — an institution whose job it is to downplay right-wing terror and criminalize anti-fascism. For leftists, assessments from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution — which should have been abolished long ago — are worthless. Even if, hypocritically, people still positively reference them when it comes to banning the AfD.

Even if the Office for the Protection of the Constitution sees it differently: Being left-wing or even left-radical, advocating for a different, better, more solidary society, is not inherently unconstitutional. The Basic Law does not stipulate that we must live forever in a capitalist, inhumane, dog-eat-dog society — even if some would like to make us believe otherwise.

The Red Aid is not banned. Therefore, membership should not be a disqualifying criterion for a government office, as is currently being suggested. It is a shame, then, that Eralp — in preemptive obedience — resigned from the organization a year ago and is now justifying her membership, instead of continuing to support the association.

Unlike CDU politician Kurt Georg Kiesinger, who was a member of the Nazi Party, Eralp has nothing to be ashamed of — and Kiesinger even became Chancellor. Quite the opposite: The commitment against the right, to which the lawyers of the Red Aid and its predecessor organization have been dedicated since the Nazi era, is something one would wish for from many politicians. If that were the case, the electoral successes of far-right parties would surely be kept in check. They pose a far greater danger to democracy than anti-fascist lawyers.

Marie Frank is an editor at taz, focusing on social movements, migration, class struggle, and social justice. She studied political theory but is more interested in practice.

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