Arriving at 115 Einbecker Strasse, an 11-story building in Lichtenberg, a district of former East Berlin with typical 1970s Plattenbau architecture, 43-year-old Regina Brückner took out her cell phone. "We've called at every apartment here," said the Die Linke (radical left) activist, as she opened the party's app. She is part of the team that organized the home visit campaign in this part of Lichtenberg, where residents on modest incomes are sometimes far removed from politics. "I remember a difficult visit to the home of a gentleman who was very angry with the radical left, for whom he had voted for over 30 years," she recounted. "I said to him, 'Okay, but I've just joined the party and I'm standing in front of you.' He finally calmed down and said, 'Respect for what you're doing.' It was a powerful moment."

In the three months leading up to the parliamentary elections on Sunday, February 23, Die Linke said it made 600,000 house calls. No other party has carried out such a large-scale grassroots campaign, which was inspired by the US. In Lichtenberg, the operation was conclusive: The candidate of the far-right AfD party, 53-year-old Beatrix von Storch, a historic figure in the party, was soundly defeated by 36-year-old Ines Schwerdtner, co-leader of Die Linke.

For the party, this success in Lichtenberg is an important symbolic victory in the face of the rise of the AfD, which obtained 20.8% of the country's votes. It is also one of the signs of the resurrection of the radical left in Germany: Die Linke achieved an unexpectedly high score (8.5%, + 3.9 points compared to the 2021 legislative elections), eight months after its debacle at the June 2024 European elections (2.7%). At the beginning of January, it was still credited with 4% of voting intentions. On February 23, Die Linke came out on top among 18–24-year-olds (25%, 17 points more than in 2021), ahead of the AfD (21%, + 14 points).

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Regina and Ehmi are still overwhelmed by the success of the campaign, in which more and more volunteers took part as the weeks went by. For many, it was a first. "It took courage to talk to strangers who didn't necessarily share our ideas. All the volunteers said the experience had left a lasting impression on them," said Ehmi, 27, who joined the party a year ago. "I'd had enough of scrolling through my phone, trembling at the thought of the far right coming to power. I wanted to take part in a collective anti-fascist action," she continued. "Meeting people at random, facing them physically, talking to them, it's the opposite to social media," Regina summed up.

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