Far-left party wins Berlin election on housing nationalization platform

In late September 2026, Berlin's voters entrusted a far-left party with the governance of one of Europe's great cities, drawn by a promise as radical as it is ancient: that shelter belongs to the people, not the market. The election result is less a political anomaly than a measure of accumulated desperation — years of rising rents, displaced families, and unanswered pleas for relief finally crystallizing into a mandate for transformation. Whether that mandate can survive the friction of coalition politics and practical governance is the question Berlin now carries into its uncertain future.