Red-Green-Red in Berlin: Evers decries “dam burst” – SPD and Greens decide Monday
After the Left Party, Greens and SPD reached agreement, CDU leader Evers accuses the partners of “capitulation.” The paper calls for voting rights after five years, rent caps and a higher property transfer tax.
Symbolic image · Photo: Gunnar Klack / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
Berlin CDU leader Stefan Evers sharply attacked the exploratory paper of the Left Party, the Greens and the SPD. It was a “declaration of capitulation by the SPD and the Greens to a radical, partly antisemitic Left Party,” Evers said, according to dpa – “a dam burst that shifts the political coordinate system in Germany in favor of the extremes.” The planned socialization would cost billions “without a single new apartment being created as a result,” he said. SPD state leader Steffen Krach countered Chancellor Merz, who had demanded that the talks be broken off, saying he should “get a grip on his own government and his own party,” according to Tagesspiegel.
In addition to socializing around 160,000 apartments owned by large corporations, the 31-page paper provides that rents for the 440,000 state-owned apartments rise by no more than 2% a year. By 2031, 100,000 affordable apartments are to be built. Compensation for the socialization is to be capped at 16 billion euros, according to Tagesspiegel. Also planned: voting rights at state and municipal level after five years of residence, no further construction of the A100, no development of Tempelhofer Feld and no police staff cuts. Additional revenue of at least 400 million euros is to come from sources including a higher real estate transfer tax, according to Tagesspiegel.
On Monday, the SPD state executive board and a small party convention of the Greens will decide whether to enter coalition negotiations. The Left Party plans to vote at a party convention on Oct. 31. If all agree, negotiations could begin in early November; the goal is a new government by the turn of the year.