Berlin's Giffey breaks ranks, opposes plan to socialize 160,000 apartments
Berlin economy senator Franziska Giffey of the Social Democrats rejected plans to take 160,000 apartments into public ownership, warning of years of lawsuits and damage to the budget.
Archive image · Photo: Martin Kraft / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
Berlin's economy senator Franziska Giffey, a Social Democrat, came out against a key element of the exploratory deal struck by the Left Party, the Greens and her own SPD. "I don't think socialization is the right way to move our city forward," she wrote on Instagram. The paper envisages transferring about 160,000 apartments owned by large companies into public ownership in return for compensation.
Giffey called the maximum compensation of 16 billion euros, or 100,000 euros per apartment on average, unrealistic and said years of lawsuits would follow. She warned that housing companies would halt or not start new construction, making housing even scarcer, with serious consequences for Berlin's economy and state budget.
The Brandenburg branch of the Christian Democrats and the firefighters' union DFeuG also criticized the planned alliance on Sunday. Party bodies must now decide whether to open formal coalition talks.