Polls opened early Sunday in elections that have great significance for Germany's future direction. The 16 federal states, one of which is Berlin, have relatively great independence and influence in German national politics.
In Berlin, the left-wing party Die Linke, with popular candidate Elif Eralp, has put rent increases and the housing shortage at the forefront - and it has resonated.
In opinion polls, Die Linke has just over 20 percent of the vote, which would mean an increase of more than 8 percentage points.
The ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU), with Kai Wegner as the incumbent mayor, has around 20 percent support according to the Politpro opinion poll - and is thus down 8 percentage points. Wegner has already announced that he will not run for re-election.
The Social Democrats, the SPD, continue their decline and are down 6 percentage points to 12 percent, according to opinion polls.
The far-right AfD (Alternative for Germany) party is expected to gain nearly 9 percentage points and receive around 20 percent of the vote, according to the same survey.
The elections in the capital Berlin and in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in northeastern Germany also follow two weeks after the elections in the federal state of Saxony-Anhalt, where the AfD achieved its first success so far with almost 44 percent of the vote.
