Saturday September 11th 2021
20,000 for a radical change of course
Protesters call for a stop to rents in Berlin
Living in Berlin is expensive. Low wage earners cannot afford an address in the city center. The organizers count 20,000 demonstrators at a demonstration against the “rent madness”. However, the Berlin SPD top candidate Giffey rejects expropriation claims.
According to the organizers, around 20,000 people took to the streets in Berlin in the afternoon demanding affordable rents. “The huge housing problem in our country must finally be solved,” demanded the Berlin Tenants’ Association, which coordinated the event together with the “Berlin Alliance against Displacement and Rent Insanity”. The motto of the demonstration was “Living for everyone”.
It started with a kick-off rally at Alexanderplatz, from where the demonstration started towards the final rally on Strasse des 17. Juni. According to the organizers, hundreds of house communities and initiatives from all over Germany as well as large organizations such as the German Tenants’ Association, the Paritätische Gesamtverband, the Federal Association of Homeless Aid and the German Trade Union Confederation took part in the demonstration.
A “radical change of course in rent and housing policy” was called for. In the run-up to the Bundestag election and the House of Representatives elections in Berlin, an “urgent request to the parties” must finally be made to finally take comprehensive measures to protect tenants. Specific demands included a nationwide rent freeze, a nationwide rent cap and the socialization of large housing groups.
Referendum on expropriations
In Berlin, citizens can vote on the referendum on “Expropriate Deutsche Wohnen & Co.” on September 26th parallel to the Bundestag and House of Representatives elections. The initiative wants to transfer the more than 240,000 apartments of the large real estate groups in Berlin to an institution under public law, where they are to be managed “democratically, transparently and in a way that is oriented towards the common good”.
In the morning, the top candidate of the Berlin SPD for the office of governing mayor, Franziska Giffey, spoke out clearly against apartment expropriations. As a result of expropriations, as a Berlin initiative wants to enforce by referendum, not a single new apartment will be created, said Giffey on Deutschlandfunk. She is in favor of consistently taking action against unfair landlords and using all means to strengthen tenants. This included the establishment of environmental protection areas, the strengthening of cooperatives and the implementation of the rent brake. The goal must also be to build 20,000 new apartments per year in Berlin, said Giffey.
.