Billionaire René Benko (46) (archive photo) Photo: picture alliance/dpa/APA | George Hochmuth
By Stefan Peter
The stumbling Ösi billionaire René Benko (46). Next week, the Berlin House of Representatives is expected to focus on its projects in the capital. The Greens requested this. Their demand: The Senate should immediately end its cooperation with Benko’s Signa Group.
“The previous Signa building ruins are more than enough,” complains Julian Schwarze (40), the parliamentary group’s urban development spokesman. “It is incomprehensible that the Senate continues to stick to Signa.”
In recent years, the group has broken its promises and not invested in the department stores. The Greens, like the Left, have been drumming up against the planned renovation of Karstadt Hermannplatz and Kurfürstendamm for years.
The Senate doesn’t think much of the Greens’ demands. “We are monitoring developments at Signa very closely,” said a spokesman for Building Senator Christian Gaebler (58, SPD). “We have an urban planning interest in the development of the various projects, which also involve a lot of jobs.”
But there is obviously no agreement among the comrades on the Signa issue.
“Ongoing development planning procedures should be stopped for now,” said Wedding SPD MP Mathias Schulz (37). “So that this company doesn’t continue to profit from our city.”