Söder calls Berlin's left-wing alliance "Honecker 2.0", demands federal law
Speaking to the conservatives' youth wing in Bonn, CSU leader Markus Söder attacked the preliminary deal between the Left Party, Greens and SPD in Berlin and called for a federal law to stop expropriation plans.
Archive image · Photo: Olaf Kosinsky / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 de (cropped and resized)
Bavarian Premier and CSU leader Markus Söder sharply criticized the preliminary agreement reached by the Left Party, the Greens and the Social Democrats in Berlin. "They want to expropriate, and on a massive scale, Honecker 2.0," he said on Sunday at the close of the Junge Union's annual Deutschlandtag in Bonn.
Söder called for a federal law to end what he called "absurd expropriation fantasies of socialists." He also rejected giving non-governmental organizations a say in the capital: "No power to NGOs on migration." He said Berlin's declaration against antisemitism was "not worth the paper".
Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) had warned against the Berlin alliance on Saturday, shortly before the three parties announced their deal. Under the compromise, housing stock held by companies owning more than 10,000 apartments is to be transferred to a public-law institution. Coalition talks are due to begin in November, pending approval by party bodies.