Saviano urges Berlin Left politician Eralp to name the people she fears

Saviano's open letter

Italian author Roberto Saviano, who is pursued by the Mafia and lives under police protection, published an open letter to Berlin Left politician Elif Eralp in the current edition of the weekly Die Zeit. He writes that it is terrible to know one's family is in the crosshairs, and he advises her to name the people she fears. His central message fits into a single sentence:

“The only protection is a name spoken aloud, with the state at your side.”

Saviano says that over the past 20 years he has learned that keeping a name unspoken does not protect anyone. He argues that a threatener wants silence, and once that silence is secured, the threat can be repeated at will.

A Spiegel report and the coalition talks

In late October 2026, about a week before Saviano's letter, a Spiegel report caused a stir by saying Eralp sees her family's safety at risk if she names a well-known Palestine activist in an interview. The Berlin Left is currently negotiating a coalition with the Greens and the SPD, and Eralp wants to become Regierende Bürgermeisterin. According to Eralp, the Landeskriminalamt generally advises against naming concrete individuals in connection with terror suspicion or organised crime. According to democ, an association that monitors anti-democratic movements, the man is a long-time activist of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which the EU and the US classify as a terrorist organisation. After the September election for the Berlin House of Representatives, he attended a Left party election party in Neukölln, where a leading member of a partly criminal clan was also present, according to democ.

Eralp's internal note and the security advice

Eralp had inadvertently revealed her fear in internal notes on a Spiegel interview, and Spiegel decided to make that episode public. The note concerned a question about the activist, whose name she did not want to give while authorising the interview. Her spokesperson later said that security authorities had advised her not to tie political problems to individual people in public statements. Saviano takes the opposite view on the same man: if Eralp considers him innocent, she should defend him openly and hold to account those who denounce him publicly, and if not, she should say she wants nothing to do with him.

CDU draft for a reliability check on parliamentary staff

A draft bill from the Berlin CDU would subject all staff of MPs and parliamentary groups in the state parliament to a so-called reliability check, and dpa has seen the finished text. Under the draft, House of Representatives president Hendrikje Klein (Linke) would ask the Federal Central Criminal Register for information on previous convictions, provided the staff member agrees. The Berlin LKA and the state office for the protection of the constitution would be asked whether they hold findings against a person's reliability. The draft's justification states its aim:

“The public funding of parliamentary employment serves the independent and effective performance of parliamentary tasks.”

A conviction for state-security offences in the past five years, or activity for a banned party or association in the past ten years, would count against reliability. Staff who refuse the check would lose public funds too, though they could stay on if paid from other sources.