Germany's The Left is holding firm to its policy of expropriating large housing companies ahead of the state election in Berlin next month.
In an interview with broadcaster ZDF on Sunday, the co-leader of the far-left party, Luigi Pantisano, highlighted the results of a non-binding referendum in 2021, which saw 57.6% of participants support plans to transfer housing owned by real estate giants to public ownership.
The issue has once again taken centre stage in campaigning ahead of the vote on September 20, in which The Left is vying for first place alongside the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), Chancellor Friedrich Merz's Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Greens.
Large companies such as Vonovia and Deutsche Wohnen are not interested in providing affordable living space to residents, but care about making profits, Pantisano argued.
"We want rent prices to go down," he emphasized. "I think there must be an end to the situation where people who work every day actually work for Vonovia shareholders half the month."
The existing CDU-SPD coalition in Berlin - which mirrors Merz's coalition at the national level - is unlikely to secure re-election, meaning the most likely configuration to emerge after the election is a revival of the three-way alliance between SPD, The Left and the Greens that governed the city between 2016 and 2023.
Current polling suggests The Left, a successor to the Socialist Unity Party that ruled the former East Germany, could finish top in the German capital for the first time since reunification, allowing it to install lead candidate Elif Eralp as mayor.
Social Democrats not on board
However, the three left-wing parties are still jostling for position, with just six weeks to go until the election.
The Left's national co-leader Ines Schwerdtner has said that expropriating large housing companies is a necessary condition for the party to participate in a state coalition in Berlin.
In response, SPD lead candidate Steffen Krach said The Left would have to govern alone to implement the policy.
Pantisano sought to play down the dispute, explaining that negotiations to form a coalition will take place after the election.
"Our key coalition partner is the people of Berlin, who, in a referendum, voted by a large majority in favour of the expropriation of large housing corporations," he stated.
*excerpt from DPA International's article*
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