Berlin election campaign centers around radical-left drive to seize properties
Following Sunday’s regional vote, a coalition of left-wing parties could move to expropriate apartment buildings as part of a plan to lower rents.
Berlin's leftist parties are proposing an audacious plan to tackle the city's housing crisis: seize properties belonging to real estate giants they blame for the city's affordability issues. This radical idea has become the most contentious topic in Sunday's election, where a coalition of left-wing parties is poised to unseat the conservative mayor and possibly usher in the first far-left mayor since the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Elif Eralp, the frontrunner for the Left party, stated that if elected, she would take "all the stops" to make Berlin affordable again and lower rents. Her party has a narrow lead in the polls, just ahead of Chancellor Friedrich Merz's center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which currently holds the mayor's office.
The Left party, tracing its roots to East Germany's communist party, is enjoying a resurgence after gaining a new wave of support from young voters energized by the rise of the far right. To fund the expropriation plan, they propose to seize properties worth up to 60% of their market value, estimated at €18 billion. The city could then recover the money through rental income over a century.
The CDU, currently holding the mayor's office, fears that a Left party victory would negatively impact Berlin's housing market. They argue that the expropriation plans would deter new apartment construction and drive up rents, exacerbating the city's housing shortage. The Greens, polling fourth with around 15% support, are the only other party fully supportive of the expropriation plans and have expressed their ambition to push it through in coalition with the Left party.
However, the SPD, polling fifth with 12% support, remains a potential moderate force. They favor other measures to lower rents and have lost some political capital due to a corruption probe involving accusations of illicit campaign donations. The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is polling at an unexpectedly strong 18%, putting them in third place, just a few points behind the Left party. The AfD warns that the Left party's plans would lead to "new socialism" and a return to the city's socialist past.
Despite the hurdles, the Left party believes they will succeed. Party lead candidate Elif Eralp is confident that the federal government will not interfere and has serious doubts about the constitutional feasibility of the expropriation proposal. With the SPD and Greens needed to form a government, the Left party's path to victory remains uncertain, but their radical proposal continues to resonate with voters in a city grappling with skyrocketing rents and dwindling affordable housing.
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