Berlin's streetlights are currently buried under roughly 250,000 campaign posters, and on 20 September 2026 the city votes in not one but two elections at once. Berliners pick the Abgeordnetenhaus (with two votes: one for a constituency candidate, one for a party list) plus a district-level BVV election with a third vote. Whichever coalition emerges will choose the next Governing Mayor.

The mood on the ground is tense. The far-right AfD is polling just behind Die Linke and the CDU, and Germany's domestic intelligence agency classified the party as a confirmed right-wing extremist entity in 2025, pending court proceedings. Local issues dominating the campaign include renewed CDU plans to build 21,400 apartments on Tempelhofer Feld, despite a 2014 referendum that voted against development; spiralling rents; a cost-of-living squeeze; and even security lapses at a CDU parade.

So who's running? Stefan Evers (CDU) is the best-known face, the State Finance Senator behind deep budget cuts who also took over the culture and mayoral briefs after a funding scandal and the withdrawal of Kai Wegner. Elif Eralp (Die Linke) models her pitch on New York's Zohran Mamdani: honour the 2021 referendum to expropriate corporate landlords, cap rents on public housing, introduce a €9 social transit ticket, and halt A100 motorway expansion. The Greens are running a two-person team, with political scientist Werner Graf as mayoral candidate, pushing climate adaptation like cooling spaces and tree planting, plus tougher housing policy that stops short of expropriation. Steffen Krach (SPD) is a pro-business centrist who calls expropriation "disastrous" but opposes building on Tempelhofer Feld. Kristin Brinker leads the AfD with hardline immigration stances and social housing rules favouring long-term locals.

Coalition maths is the real drama. Die Linke won't enter government without landlord expropriation, which Krach's SPD rules out. The Greens may drift back toward the CDU instead. And there's a darker possibility floating around: that the CDU might soften its "firewall" against working with the AfD if it secures power.

Why should a traveller care? If you're visiting Berlin around the election, expect walls of posters everywhere (including gloriously blunt ones like Volt's "Unf*ck Berlin"), possible rallies and heavy police presence downtown, and a city arguing loudly with itself about housing, heat, and who gets to live here. For longer-stayers, the results directly shape rent caps, transit fares, and how open the city feels. Even if you're just passing through, watching Berlin's political street theatre in September is a genuinely local experience — just take the slogans with a grain of salt. For deeper detail on manifestos and candidates, Slow Travel Berlin has published a full rundown, and the Berliner Morgenpost maintains a practical voting wiki.

For a city that prides itself on grit and protest, this election is a referendum on what Berlin becomes next: more affordable and left-leaning, or a shift further right. The posters may be vague, but the stakes aren't.