One recent day in Berlin, a few hundred Pride demonstrators with rainbow flags rallied in eastern Marzahn district, a sweep of communist-era residential blocs that is a hotspot of far-right AfD support.<\/p>\n
Far from the city’s bohemian neighbourhoods with their hip clubs and trendy cafes — areas which reliably vote for leftist and green parties — this working-class district is Berlin’s ground zero for a shift to the hard right.<\/p>\n
In last year’s national election, the anti-immigration, anti-Islam and Moscow-friendly Alternative for Germany (AfD) topped the polls with 31 percent in Marzahn, which is home to many Russian speakers.<\/p>\n
Ahead of September polls in the city-state of Berlin, many progressive-leaning voters fear the AfD may again win big — perhaps boosted by public anger over a deadly jihadist attack that targeted the city’s main annual LGBTQ Pride event last weekend.<\/p>\n
“If we demonstrate in an area where the AfD polls very strongly, we’re sending a powerful signal,” said one of the recent demonstrators at the smaller march in Marzahn, Andreas, who was joined by his husband Sumudu.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sumudu, from Sri Lanka, said he came to Berlin to live in a place that celebrates “democracy, human rights and openness”.<\/p>\n
The 24-year-old said he views the AfD’s rise with “disgust” and insisted the party has “no place in this city”.<\/p>\n
– Islamist attack –<\/p>\n
Berlin has long prided itself on being a somewhat chaotic but fun-loving bastion of diversity and openness.<\/p>\n
So many were stunned when the AfD last week topped the polls for the first time there, scoring 19 percent in an Insa survey.<\/p>\n
The other occasional front-runner has been the far-left Linke party, which emerged from the communist party that ruled East Germany until the Berlin Wall fell in 1989.<\/p>\n
The Linke’s antifascist battle cry of “onto the barricades” and vows for dramatic reforms to ease a housing crisis have endeared it to many young voters.<\/p>\n
Many also support its pro-Palestinian stance in a country where the national government is a steadfast supporter of Israel.<\/p>\n
The Linke’s top candidate, Elif Eralp, a lawyer with Turkish heritage, said she also fears the AfD could exploit the attack in which a man ploughed a vehicle through a crowd, then attacked people with a machete.<\/p>\n
The presumed attacker, a German man with Lebanese roots who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, was later shot dead by police after running towards them with a bladed weapon.<\/p>\n
Eralp told AFP about the attack that “I strongly fear this could benefit the AfD, because the AfD always exploits such events for racist narratives”.<\/p>\n
It’s a concern shared by Mario Paul, 46, a mourner at a memorial for the victims — a Polish woman who was killed and some 30 people who were injured.<\/p>\n
The attack “will make the situation worse”, he said. “I am shocked that people are shifting further to the right.”<\/p>\n
– Housing crisis –<\/p>\n
The outcome of the September 20 vote remains wide open as a crowded field of parties vie to govern the city now ruled by the centre-right CDU of Chancellor Friedrich Merz and the Social Democrats.<\/p>\n
Berlin’s unpopular CDU mayor Kai Wegner recently stepped down, replaced as top candidate by the little-known Stefan Evers.<\/p>\n
Under one scenario, the city could next be ruled by a leftist coalition of the Linke, Greens and SPD.<\/p>\n
The AfD for now has been shut out of power across Germany as all other big parties maintain a “firewall” of non-cooperation with it.<\/p>\n
In highly polarised times, the election is also seen as a battle for the heart and soul of Berlin, famously described by a former mayor as “poor but sexy”.<\/p>\n
Some fear the worst in a city which a century ago was partying through the “Roaring Twenties”, an era of flamboyant variety shows, jazz bars and queer culture under the Weimar Republic.<\/p>\n
Those hedonistic and turbulent days gave way to the rise of the Nazi regime, World War II and the Holocaust.<\/p>\n
During the Cold War, when Germany and Berlin were divided, the city’s western half became a haven for alternative counter culture, which\u00a0blossomed further after the Wall collapsed.<\/p>\n
Recent decades have seen a spike in housing prices and the arrival of migrants from Syria, Iraq and Ukraine to what has long been a hub for Germany’s Turkish community.<\/p>\n
The AfD is also campaigning on Berlin’s housing crisis, heaping some of the blame on foreigners.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Its top candidate in Berlin, Kristin Brinker, told AFP she wants to reserve social housing for “locals”, which she defined as people with jobs “who have lived here for a long time”.<\/p>\n
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