Push for socialization: Dobrindt is planning high hurdles

dpa | Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt wants to make socialization, such as the one the Left is planning in Berlin, much more difficult by setting high hurdles. “We will make it clear in an investment protection law that arbitrary left-wing socialization fetish is incompatible with the Basic Law,” the CSU politician told Bild. His ministry confirmed details of the planned law to the German Press Agency for the first time.

Among other things, socialization of rental apartments, for example, should only be possible if there is compelling evidence of necessity. A state government would then have to prove that it has fully exhausted all other means, i.e. investments in and support for housing construction, and that it has no other choice. If expropriation occurs, compensation must be paid “immediately in money” and, above all, at the market value, which is determined by an appraisal.

This could make the plan of the Left, the Greens and the SPD to socialize large private housing stock in Berlin much more difficult. As can be seen from their exploratory paper, the parties in the capital want to take action against private housing companies with a portfolio of more than 10,000 apartments. They are planning compensation costs of 16 billion euros, which is likely to be below the market value of the apartments.

Left leader Luigi Pantisano accused Dobrindt and the entire black-red federal government of being more important to them than the tenants in Berlin. “Such a law will not stand before the Federal Constitutional Court,” he emphasized. Now the federal SPD has to decide which side it is on: “on the side of the rental mafia or the tenants”.