Society: Initiative sharply criticizes federal plans against expropriations
The Deutsche Wohnen & Co. expropriate initiative has supported the federal government’s planned ban on associations sharply criticized at the state level. “The federal government’s proposal goes against the will of the people of Berlin and thus shows a deeply disturbed understanding of democracy,” she said. “Merz and Söder are now doing their best to enforce the will of the investors once and for all against the needs of the tenants shortly before the election to the House of Representatives in Berlin,” said the initiative’s spokeswoman, Karla Hildebrandt.
The federal government coalition wants to finally put a stop to the ideas propagated by the Left Party in particular about the expropriation of corporations with large rental property portfolios. “In order not to endanger private housing construction, federal law regulates that the nationalization of private rental housing stock through socialization laws at the state level is no longer possible,” says the coalition committee’s resolutions.
Hildebrandt: “We continue to stand clearly for socialization”
The initiative in Berlin who pushed through the successful referendum on the expropriation of large real estate companies in 2021, believes that this is not legally possible: “Associations at the state level cannot be banned by a simple federal law; that would require a constitutional amendment,” argued Hildebrandt. “We continue to stand clearly for socialization.”
Green Party lead candidate Werner Graf pointed out the around 60 percent support for the referendum on expropriation. His party feels obliged to implement it, he told the Editorial Network Germany (RND). «It is remarkable that the Federal Government wants to torpedo this democratic decision.”
Left-wing leading candidate Elif Eralp threw out Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) proposed that he wanted to use federal law to undermine what was deliberately written into the Basic Law in 1949: “Article 15 allows socialization so that economic power never again shapes entire cities in an uncontrolled manner.”
SPD, CDU and CSU now wanted to cash in on that. “They are only doing this because they fear that a left-wing government in Berlin will have the courage to take on the real estate companies and implement the referendum.”
The federal chairman of the Left, Luigi Pantisano, told the news portal t-online that the federal government was taking anti-democratic action against tenants. She is afraid of the tenants who are not prepared to continue to accept the conditions on the housing market.
Wegner welcomes the plans
Berlin’s Governing Mayor Kai Wegner welcomed the federal government’s plans. “The left-green debate about expropriations is massively damaging to Berliners – and it is damaging Germany as a business location as a whole,” said Wegner.
“The debate is already slowing down investments in urgently needed housing construction. Berlin tenants pay the price for this.” Anyone who convinces people that left-wing populism can solve the housing issue is deliberately deceiving them. “It’s good that the federal government is now providing clarity and putting a stop to this wrong path.”
Berlin’s Finance Senator Stefan Evers (CDU) also believes the initiative is correct. There is already considerable uncertainty in the market because of the debate about this in Berlin, he said in the House of Representatives. At the international level as well as in Germany, the reactions are devastating. There is a threat of devaluation spirals and there are already risk premiums in the real estate market.
Merz warns against expropriation debates
Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) said that corresponding efforts at the state level had led to “people all over the world asking what is going on in Germany, should we expect expropriations in Germany?”
Every federal state can do whatever it wants. But if decisions at the state level lead to a problem throughout Germany, it would be right to react to it at the federal level. The Chancellor added: “And in this very specific case, we are reacting with a law that prohibits expropriation of housing associations – and we can regulate that under federal law.”
Draft bill presented as early as September 2025
In 2021, the majority of Berlin’s population voted in favor of the expropriation of large housing companies. This called on the Berlin Senate at the time to “initiate all measures” necessary to transfer real estate to public ownership and to draw up a law for this purpose. However, the vote was not legally binding for politicians.
Last September, the Berlin initiative “Expropriate Deutsche Wohnen & Co.” presented a bill to socialize large housing groups. Representatives of the initiative announced that this law should be passed in a referendum in the next two years. The House of Representatives will be re-elected in Berlin on September 20th. A lack of housing and high rents are among the central election campaign issues.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:260702-930-322507/2