“Expropriate Deutsche Wohnen & Co”: Berlin’s expropriation referendum successful

The Berlin referendum on the expropriation of large real estate groups was successful. After counting more than 90 percent of all constituencies, 56.4 percent voted yes and 39.0 percent voted no. According to calculations by rbb | 24, the result will no longer turn even with the votes still to be counted: 3,524 of 3,763 voting districts were counted on the night of Monday at just before 2 a.m.

The necessary quorum of around a quarter of all those eligible to vote had already been exceeded by around midnight: Almost 612,000 yes-votes were required for a successful referendum – after midnight it was already more than 963,000.

The initiators were very happy in the evening. “Together we moved the city and shook up politics – that’s what we’re celebrating today. Thousands of us have become active. We have fought with powerful opponents and won. We’re not going away anytime soon,” said Joanna Kusiak, spokeswoman for “Expropriate Deutsche Wohnen & Co” initiative.

“The demand for socialization unites far more voices behind it than any party. We Berliners have decided: Nobody is allowed to speculate with our apartments,” Kusiak continued.

According to its own statements, the initiative now intends to intensively accompany the upcoming coalition negotiations. “We do not accept delaying strategies or attempts to intercept them. Disregarding the referendum would be a political scandal. We will not give up until the socialization of housing groups has been implemented,” says Kalle Kunkel, spokesman for the initiative.

According to the wording of the Berlin referendum, the future Berlin Senate is now called upon to draft a law for the association of around 240,000 apartments in Berlin. All private housing companies with more than 3,000 apartments in the capital would be affected, with the exception of the cooperatives. The initiative is currently targeting a dozen real estate companies.

The initiative “Expropriate Deutsche Wohnen & Co.” did not put its own bill to the vote in the referendum, but the vote is not legally binding for the Berlin Senate.

This was most recently the case in 2017 at the referendum on keeping Tegel Airport open. Although a narrow majority of those entitled to vote were in favor of the airport’s continued operation, the red-red-green state government stuck to its position: the airport was closed last year.

Since a new House of Representatives will be elected with the referendum “Expropriate Deutsche Wohnen & Co.”, the result of the vote is, so to speak, a basis for advice for the parties that will negotiate a coalition after the election – probably led by Franziska Giffey (SPD), who recently clearly opposed the referendum.

Everyone who was also allowed to participate in the House of Representatives election was allowed to vote in the referendum. That was around 2.47 million Berliners. The referendum is successful if the majority of those who voted has ticked “Yes”.

Broadcast: Inforadio, 09/27/2021, 1:00 a.m.