Berlin's anti-Semitism row heats up with legal action against minister

The left-wing candidate poised to be Berlin's next mayor is taking legal action against the country's conservative interior minister in an escalating row over accusations of anti-Semitism that have dominated German media and political debate over the past week.

The lawyer for Elif Eralp told dpa on Sunday that the mayoral candidate and the Berlin branch of her The Left party have filed a criminal complaint against Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt from Chancellor Friedrich Merz's centre-right Christian Democrats over a remark referring to Eralp as an "anti-Semite."

The victory of The Left party in Berlin's state election on September 20 was met with outrage from many centrist and centre-right politicians, who decried what they saw as anti-Semitic tendencies in the party in relation to comments made about Israel, a charge which The Left party denies. 

Many politicians in Germany - a staunch military backer of Israel throughout the conflict in Gaza - view hostility towards Israel as inherently anti-Semitic.

The legal filing says the interior minister endorsed a statement describing Eralp as an "anti-Semite" in a criminal act of defamation and insult, lawyer Jasper Prigge told dpa.

In a German talkshow on Thursday, a moderator said to the minister in a verbal slip-up that was quickly corrected: "Elif Eralp says she is an anti-Semite ... she is not an anti-Semite." Dobrindt then said: "Oh yes she is."

Dobrindt had said earlier that the Berlin branch of The Left was "quite obviously tolerating anti-Semites and extremists in its orbit." Eralp has repeatedly condemned all forms of anti-Semitism and calls for violence, and reaffirmed Israel's right to exist.

Eralp and The Left party look set to lead Berlin's regional government after winning the election with 25.7% of the vote.