“Make Berlin Affordable”: Die Linke Puts Housing at the Centre of Election Bid
The left-wing party announced election plans to expropriate private landlords, cap rents, and crack down on rent gouging — and the mayor isn't happy.
Monday, April 27
On Saturday, Die Linke held a partywide conference to go over their game plan for taking control of city hall in the upcoming state elections. The left-wing party has been polling just behind the CDU – which has recently descended into scandal and chaos – and, if made part of the coalition in September, could have enough of a majority to appoint the next mayor. The most likely candidate for the job, 45-year-old former lawyer Elif Eralp, kicked off the conference by announcing that the party has its sights set on an enemy that Berlins have long wanted to see fall: private real estate companies.
"We will finally address the question of ownership," Eralp said, promising to push through the long-awaited implementation of the expropriation referendum that passed public vote in 2021. The referendum would mean that private real estate firms with more than 3,000 rental units would have to transfer ownership to public control, socialising some 220,000 apartments. "Let's make history together and apply Article 15 of the Basic Law for the first time in the Federal Republic," she added.
"I want to make Berlin affordable. Kai Wegner is doing the exact opposite."
Eralp also made commitments to a rent cap for nearly 400,000 state-owned apartments, a task force against rent gouging, and a new state housing office dedicated to tenant protection. "I want to make Berlin affordable. Kai Wegner is doing the exact opposite," she said.
The party's focus on addressing Berlin's housing crisis immediately ticked off Berlin's mayor – who admitted in February that he considers Die Linke his "main competitor" in the upcoming elections. (In last year's federal elections, Die Linke swept Berlin, taking 19.9% of the vote.)
"Expropriations solve not a single problem," the mayor wrote on X on Sunday. He pointed to the CDU's 80,000 new-build apartments under his tenure. "Left-wing ideology creates no housing. It exacerbates the housing crisis and will ultimately trigger an economic crisis." The SPD's lead candidate, Steffen Krach, has also proposed solving the issue with increased construction.
New data in April revealed that rent prices might have finally hit a ceiling, suggesting that Berliners are truly at the limit of what they can afford. Making housing a top priority could play well for Die Linke – but they will also be up against a difficult legal battle to implement Article 15.
At the party conference, Eralp and other Die Linke politicians continued to reference New York City's Zohran Mamdani as a role model, claiming that Berlin could also become "a red metropolis" and proposing new taxes on the wealthy. Whether that Mamdani association will take as Berlin grows closer and closer to election day remains to be seen.
