The German leftwing party Die Linke won the state elections in Berlin on 20 September. It’s unclear whether the party will be able to form a coalition, appoint its lead candidate Elif Eralp as mayor, and follow through on her core campaign promise: to socialise the housing stock of the city’s biggest real-estate companies. A barrage of accusations started to circulate immediately after the results came in. Even by the standards of present-day polarisation, the pitch was extreme.On the basis of one leaked chat and one rapper’s performance, the party was described as schmoozing with criminal clans and endangering the...