The SPD in the Berlin House of Representatives has developed a draft for a socialization law. This reports “Der Spiegel”. The aim of the law is the “direct coverage of a public needs of general interest”, for example in living and supplying energy, water and heat.
The CDU emphasized that the aim of the Berlin law was not to expropriate housing groups. “It is about how the country can intervene if undesirable developments in the market damage citizens’ interests,” said CDU parliamentary group leader Dirk Stettner.
The parliamentary board members of the CDU and SPD had agreed at key points for the law at the end of June. The draft is a reaction to the successful referendum from 2021 to expropriate large apartment companies and is based on Article 15 of the Basic Law.
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Basic Law allowed socialization
It reads: “The land, natural treasures and means of production can be transferred to common property or other forms of community for the purpose of socialization by a law that regulates the type and extent of compensation.”
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In the referendum, a good 59 percent of the participating voters voted for the socialization of real estate companies with more than 3,000 apartments in Berlin.
Enables the federal states to regulate social markets, even without expropriation
SPD parliamentary group leader Raed Saleh on the socialization law.
“The socialization enables federal states to regulate the market, even without expropriation,” said SPD parliamentary group leader Raed Saleh. Berlin can limit, for example, profit maximization or market -oriented behavior.
“The country could prescribe a price cover for all landlords for five years,” said Saleh. “The framework law offers a basis for this, so that we no longer need the federal opening clause.”
CDU does not want rental cover
The coalition partner CDU sees it a little differently. “The new law should create a legal framework, it is not intended for a rental cover,” said Stettner. “The CDU will not exist.”
Both parties had already agreed on a social framework law in the 2023 coalition agreement – but left open details. In the meantime, Saleh has repeatedly spoken out for more regulatory options for rents.
Lack of housing and high rents are a permanent problem in Berlin. From the SPD’s point of view, a corresponding law that enables Article 15 of the Basic Law would be a historical step.
It is planned to bring the draft law to the House of Representatives at the latest in mid -December. It should come into force at the earliest two years after its announcement. The Federal Constitutional Court had declared the Berlin Senate Rental Development Act to be unconstitutional four years ago, on the grounds that the State of Berlin had no competence to issue it. (dpa)
