Bosbach questions Eralp's control over Berlin's Left Party

The CDU veteran argues that promises to distance the party from extremist currents are not enough, as Berlin's coalition negotiations continue.

Channel: WELT Nachrichtensender ·

GermanyStory of October 30, 2026Trari Newsroom

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Things we can learn from the video

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0:26Bosbach separates sympathy for Eralp's concern for her family from criticism of her political position.
2:02He argues that Berlin's Left Party leadership cannot control extremist currents within its membership.
3:23Bosbach doubts the SPD will abandon coalition talks and criticizes concessions over housing-company expropriation.
4:20The discussion turns to the Left Party's positions on police and Germany's domestic intelligence service.
4:50Bosbach urges prospective coalition partners not to accommodate the party's security-policy direction.

Can Berlin's Left Party leadership deliver the boundaries it promises? Wolfgang Bosbach makes that question central to an interview about Elif Eralp, arguing that senior politicians cannot guarantee the conduct of their party's grassroots.

Germany's WELT Nachrichtensender opens the discussion with a Der Spiegel report about Eralp's reported fear of terror supporters. Eralp is a lawyer, Berlin legislator and co-leader of the Left Party's parliamentary group. Berlin is both Germany's capital and a federal state, so the negotiations concern its state government.

Bosbach, a former domestic affairs specialist for the conservative Christian Democratic Union, distinguishes between sympathy for Eralp's concern for her family's protection and his criticism of her political position. He invokes Goethe's sorcerer's apprentice: someone unable to control the forces they have summoned.

His central allegation is that the party has failed to control currents hostile to Israel's existence. Asked whether assurances about distancing the party from terror supporters and organized crime are credible, Bosbach argues that Berlin's senior figures lack sufficient influence over the membership. These are his criticisms in the interview, not findings established by the segment.

The discussion then turns to the Social Democrats and their Berlin leader, Steffen Krach. Could the dispute cause them to abandon coalition talks? Bosbach doubts it. He accuses the SPD of yielding over proposals to expropriate large housing companies, characterizing such concessions as capitulation rather than compromise.

In the closing portion, the interviewer shifts to the Left Party's positions on policing and the domestic intelligence service, the Verfassungsschutz. Bosbach urges prospective coalition partners not to accommodate that security-policy direction. The segment ends with his warning, rather than an announcement of a coalition agreement or a breakdown in negotiations.