Thoughts from a single mother: Why I, as a SPD member, voted for the left for the first time

Social democracy was, so to speak, born in my cradle. My grandfather was SPD, mayor of a small community, and my great-grandfather was a member of the USPD.

The SPD back then doesn't seem to have much in common with today's understanding of values. The Berlin SPD stood for a social and left-wing course.

is a single mother and lives with her children on community benefit. She complains that she is not poor, but is being made poor. Here she writes under a pseudonym because she does not want to publish her real name to protect her family.

As a single mother who sometimes has to supplement with basic security, sometimes with citizen's benefit and, depending on income and rent, with housing benefit and child allowance, I am dependent on social policy. Since having children, I have received various social transfer benefits.

“Maybe she understands us,” said the owner of our local bakery, himself with Turkish roots. “She wants to reduce the social ticket again,” I think and immediately calculate what would give us as families 18 euros more per month.

Since I have been dependent on social transfer payments for over 10 years now, I know that the social ticket used to cost 27 euros. Due to the corona pandemic, it was then reduced to 9 euros, also thanks to the SPD. But under black and red and the austerity measures increased again to 27 euros.

For me it was like a slap in the face because it feels like savings are being made to those who need it most. I come from an old working class family. After graduating from high school, I had no money for a driver's license. My mother gave me 50 DM for a graduation dress, which was not enough even back then.

To this day I don't have a driver's license. I know it may sound cynical to many, but to this day I don't have the privilege of getting angry about parking fees and gas prices. I have to see how I can get half-good used winter shoes in size 30 cheaply. I have to explain to my child why the gymnastics club and the soccer club are not financially viable at the same time, while for other children playing the piano and bouldering and having fun in the pool on the weekend are no problem.

With a left-wing mayor we would have 18 euros more and since I am a tenant at Vonovia, I am hoping for support here too. Sorry SPD, but unfortunately that wasn't included for you.

On Sunday evening, shortly before 5 p.m., I park the younger child at Nachabrin, get on my bike and cycle to an organic bread shop in the neighborhood that is also open on Sundays. There I get two large loaves of whole grain bread for free, which would otherwise cost almost 6 euros each. As a top-up person, queuing at the Berliner Tafel at lunchtime is not possible for me, so I put my shame aside and ask at the local retailer to find some relief.

Thanks to the federal government, and the SPD is also involved, another 50 euros are missing - the immediate surcharge for poor children is being canceled. A future left-wing governing mayor won't be able to change that, but there are also ways to meaningfully combat child poverty in Berlin: The process of education and participation services - BuT for short - is highly complicated in Berlin. The Berlin Pass for children is usually sent late. This gives you cheaper entry to state-owned facilities such as zoos or state theaters.

Actually, my 10-year-old child is also entitled to tutoring. I thought I could just get tutoring from an institute somewhere. However, the learning support is provided exclusively through the school, and the provider with whom the school has a contract only provides 90 minutes of learning support. The children are not allowed to leave earlier because otherwise the provider cannot account for it. For my child, 90 minutes is simply too long after a full day of school and massive concentration problems. I'm hoping for more flexibility here when it comes to Berlin's BuT services.

And yes, expropriation is a hot topic. But anyone like me who has already sued Vonovia three times (and always won so far) knows what it means to be a tenant there. This wouldn't be possible without the tenants' association's legal protection insurance. Because Vonovia is trying everything, really everything, to somehow get money.

Since it has become more difficult to do this through the rents themselves, Vonovia is now trying to do it through the operating costs. Every four weeks there is a humming and rattling noise in the garden. The already short lawn in the outdoor area is mown short, hedges are trimmed and branches are removed. This item has increased by 60 percent compared to the operating cost statement from the previous year.

Despite the requirement for supporting documents, it is not clear what caused the high costs. Here, too, there is an appointment with the tenants' association because our operating costs are increasing by 30 euros. Significantly more for other neighbors with larger apartments. While I, with our 2.5 rooms, have to pay “only” 200 euros, the others have to pay around 500 to 900 euros.

Here, too, I hope that with the help of a left-wing governing mayor and left-wing politics, Vonovia and Co will be stopped. “She gets her rent from the job center anyway,” many will say. But I'm constantly switching back and forth and if I'm on housing benefit and child allowance, these 30 euros aren't taken into account. I have to pay it myself.

As a parent representative, the topic of school lunches also strikes me. There was a resolution on the Senate side against food waste. A good thing in itself. Chip cards or meal chips were then introduced. The parents must first select on the Internet exactly the meal that the child should have that day. If you forget it, the child will be left without food. If he's lucky, he'll get an emergency meal, but he'll have to go to the back of the line.

They are children of parents with mental health problems, parents with little money or no knowledge of German, or children from welcome classes who are left with a chip but without lunch - exactly the children who often don't have breakfast in the morning or get a lunch box to school. Here too, the system urgently needs to be changed. Because every child in Berlin should be guaranteed a warm lunch, regardless of whether their parents are able to click on the meal beforehand on the Internet.

Now I have to wait and quietly hope what will be decided in coalition negotiations and contracts. The 18 euros more per month through a cheaper social ticket have already been planned for. They would then make football clubs and gymnastics clubs possible in parallel. My child would be happy.