The left declares the expropriation issue to be the breaking point of the coalition with the SPD and the Greens. Berlin is currently having bigger problems and simply cannot afford this dispute, says Gunnar Schupelius.
At the party conference at the weekend, the chairwoman of the Berlin Left Party, Katina Schubert, threatened to leave the coalition with the SPD and the Greens if the expropriation was not decided in accordance with the referendum.
On September 26, the Berliners voted with 59.1 percent of the votes cast for the expropriation of real estate companies with a stock of 3,000 apartments or more.
In March, the Senate then set up a commission chaired by the former federal justice minister, Herta Däubler-Gmelin (SPD), to discuss for a year how to deal with the referendum.
The SPD demands an open consultation, at the end of which the rejection of an expropriation can stand. The left insists that expropriation must happen and only the way to get there is discussed.
One could also say: The SPD wants to sit out the problem, the left wants to pull through with the expropriation. The greens are somewhere in between.
The fronts are hardened. A hanging game is imminent. The SPD must stick to its rejection in order to remain credible. The left is being pressured by dispossession activists drawn from within their own ranks.
The radical deputies Niklas Schenker and Ferat Kocak do not want to continue to participate in the government without expropriation.
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This threat alarmed left-wing senators. At the party congress, Klaus Lederer tried to invoke a unity that no longer exists among the comrades.
So it would only be fair if the left left the coalition now, instead of threatening to do so for a year. It would make way for a new Giffey Senate to which others belong, for example the CDU or the FDP.
The expropriation debate has long since shrunk to a phantom discussion. It comes from more comfortable times when money was still available. After two years of Corona and in view of the new wave of refugees, the debt is shooting through the roof.
Nobody can now seriously toy with the idea of borrowing around 40 billion euros – because that’s how much it would be – on the capital market in order to acquire all the apartments that would have to be taken over according to the referendum.
And even if the money were available, it would be better used to build new homes. Expropriation does not create living space and would only benefit existing tenants, if at all, but not those who are looking for an apartment.
Financially, Berlin has its back to the wall and is busy taking in the refugees. In this situation, it is absurd to declare a bogus topic to be the coalition’s breaking point. Then you should get off. Nobody is forced to rule.
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