Berlin voters handed a decisive victory to the far-left Die Linke party on Sunday, marking the first time since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 that a plurality of the German capital’s electorate has backed a radical socialist party in a state election, according to Breitbart News.
Die Linke, the successor to East Germany’s former communist ruling party, took 25.7 percent of the vote, a substantial jump from its 12.2 percent showing in 2023. The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) of Chancellor Friedrich Merz, by contrast, fell to 18.8 percent, down from 28.2 percent three years earlier, according to the report.
A Youth-Driven Landslide
Exit polls cited by Breitbart show Die Linke’s victory was propelled overwhelmingly by younger voters. Among those under 25, the party captured 43 percent of the vote, an increase of 25 percentage points from the previous election. In the 25-to-34 age bracket, support was even higher at 49 percent, according to public broadcaster Tagesschau.
First-time voters broke for Die Linke at 39 percent, while the Greens finished a distant second with 14 percent. The CDU, meanwhile, won just 8 percent of voters under 25, even as it secured the largest share among those over 60 at 29 percent.
The starkest divide emerged along gender lines. A full 51 percent of women under 25 voted for Die Linke, compared to just 12 percent for the Greens. Young men supported the party at a significantly lower rate of 34 percent.
This pattern mirrors a broader international trend noted in the report, with similar gender gaps observed in Britain, Poland, and South Korea. A 2024 Gallup poll in the United States found that women aged 18 to 30 were 30 percentage points more liberal than their male counterparts.
Demographic Shifts and Controversy
Breitbart reports that Die Linke’s strong showing was also likely aided by Berlin’s changing demographics. More than 41 percent of the capital’s residents now have what German authorities call a “migrant background,” meaning they were either born abroad or have at least one parent who immigrated to the country.
While exit polls did not provide an ethnic breakdown of the vote, the party appeared conscious of its support among minority communities. Footage circulating on social media purported to show celebrations at Die Linke’s campaign headquarters on Sunday set to Arabic-language music.
The campaign was not without controversy. One Die Linke candidate, Basem Said, drew scrutiny after joining a pro-Palestinian activist to reportedly call for an “Election Intifada” in Berlin, according to Die Welt, as cited by Breitbart. The Arabic term, meaning “uprising” or “popular revolt,” has long been associated with Palestinian terror campaigns against Israel.
Die Linke’s lead candidate, Elif Eralp, could become the party’s first Mayor of Berlin since German reunification and the city’s first leader of Turkish heritage.
Merz Calls Eastern Defeat the Real ‘Disaster’
While the Berlin result represented a humiliating blow to the governing Christian Democrats, Chancellor Merz acknowledged that a simultaneous defeat in the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania was the true “disaster,” according to Breitbart. There, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party won its second state election in less than a month.
Worse still for the CDU, the party failed to clear the five percent threshold required to enter the state parliament at all, a deeply embarrassing outcome for both the party and the Chancellor.
Rumors have circulated in Berlin in recent weeks that Merz could be forced from office. The CDU leader said Sunday he has no intention of stepping down, and with no obvious rivals waiting in the wings, his government appears likely to remain in place for now.
Yet with 85 percent of the public disapproving of his leadership, according to the report, passing legislation and governing effectively will become increasingly difficult without defections.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2026/09/21/one-in-two-young-female-voters-backed-radical-socialist-die-linke-party-in-berlin-elections/