Proposed law | Left: The federal government cannot get away with banning expropriation

The federal government wants to ban the socialization of large private housing companies. Photo: dpa/Sebastian Gollnow Berlin. Like Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU), the CSU is also quickly calling for a legal brake on the socialization of large private housing companies. The plans of the black-red coalition leaders must be implemented as quickly as possible, said CSU General Secretary Martin Huber to the Funke media group. Left leader Luigi Pantisano countered that the federal government would not get away with it. He called on the SPD to take a stand.

The background is the plans of the Left in Berlin to implement the 2021 referendum “Expropriate Deutsche Wohnen & Co” in the capital and to socialize real estate holdings of more than 3,000 apartments per owner in return for compensation. The coalition leaders of the Union and SPD in the federal government agreed in July to regulate through a federal law that the nationalization of private rental housing stock through socialization laws should no longer be possible at the state level.

"The Left's expropriation plans are driving the housing market into ruin and are associated with horrendous costs," said CSU General Secretary Huber. He spoke of a socialist suicide mission that would be fatal for private investments.

Chancellor Merz had also pushed for the legislative plans to be pushed forward quickly. "The main thing is to send a clear message to international investors: There are no expropriations of private property in Germany," said the CDU leader on Monday. A decision will be reached “relatively quickly”.

Left leader Pantisano argued that the CDU was responsible for the expropriation of land for highways on a daily basis. “It is incomprehensible that expropriation of all things for affordable housing should be banned,” he said. "Merz wants to decide on an exception for Berlin out of fear of the left." 

But Pantisano said his party's success in the election to the House of Representatives on Sunday and the result of the referendum were a clear signal of expropriation. »The democratic vote of Berliners must not be ignored in order to protect Vonovia's share prices. They won’t get away with this.” dpa/nd

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