Berlin SPD wants to nationalize companies: Is the party a case for the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution?

After several years of relative calm, inflammatory phrases like nationalization, socialization, and expropriation are once again causing a stir in Berlin's politics. The reason is a new attempt by the Berlin SPD. Now the tone is escalating.

On Monday, former Berlin CDU member of the Bundestag Mario Czaja wrote on the short message platform X: "The Berlin SPD is increasingly becoming a case for the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. Their law ultimately also means expropriations of small and medium-sized businesses and cooperatives, thereby destroying a cornerstone of our country."

Berlin SPD also wants to be able to socialize companies

The background to this is the plans of SPD parliamentary group leader Raed Saleh for the Senate's proposed socialization framework law based on Article 15 of the Basic Law, which the media have cited. According to this, the goal is "the socialization of land, natural resources, and means of production, as well as their transfer into common ownership." This should not only include large real estate companies—as called for in the successful 2021 referendum—but also companies.

Saleh recently emphasized that socialization allows the federal states to regulate social markets even without expropriation. Berlin could, for example, restrict profit maximization or market-oriented behavior. "For example, the state could impose a price cap on all landlords for five years," Saleh said. He believes this approach could also cap rents in Berlin.

There will be no rent cap under the CDU.

CDU parliamentary group leader Dirk Stettner, on the other hand, emphasized that the issue was "how the state can intervene when undesirable market developments harm citizens' interests." Otherwise, he remained skeptical: "The new law is intended to create a legal framework; it is not intended for a rent cap," he said. "That won't happen with the CDU."

The unified bill is expected to be introduced to the House of Representatives by mid-December at the latest. It is expected to enter into force no earlier than two years after its promulgation.

The Berlin SPD wants to make a new attempt at the rent cap

At the end of June, the parliamentary leaders of the CDU and SPD agreed in a key issues paper that expropriations and socialization should be largely prevented by introducing indicators such as violations of the law, withdrawal of returns and failure to meet climate targets as additional prerequisites for socialization.

A few weeks later, the SPD presented a new attempt at a rent cap. The first attempt by the then red-red-green Senate had failed before the Federal Constitutional Court. Rent policy was a federal matter, and the state of Berlin lacked legislative authority.

“Constitutional fossil”: Article 15 of the Basic Law has never been applied

Now, with reference to Article 15 of the German Socialization Act, an attempt is being made that will likely end up back in Karlsruhe. This would once again be entering uncharted legal territory.

The fact that it has never been applied due to a lack of political majorities has earned Article 15 the nickname "constitutional fossil." The Liberals, for example, have attempted to abolish the article entirely on several occasions. As early as 2019, FDP legal politician and later Justice Minister Marco Buschmann explained in an interview with the trade journal LTO why Article 15 should be abolished. He argued that the Basic Law article is, at best, "an occasion for populist and useless debates."

Rent policy: Does the Berlin SPD want to copy the Left?

Populist? Perhaps. But useless? The Left Party won Berlin's federal election with the housing issue—and a pro-Palestine stance, including anti-Israel and anti-Semitic overtones . With this mix, the Turkish-born politician Ferat Kocak, for example, won the Neukölln district in the western part of the city, a district previously unwinnable for the Left.

The Berlin CDU now suspects that the Berlin SPD, with its possible lead candidate for next year's parliamentary elections, Raed Saleh, intends to take this as a model. Possibly because they are aiming for a coalition with the Left Party after the Berlin election.

CDU General Secretary Ottilie Klein wrote on X: "Is the SPD currently courting a majority for a Left Party mayor? If there's one thing Berlin doesn't need, it's expropriation and class struggle. The SPD Berlin is completely off track here."

Andreas Geisel (SPD), a politician with considerable expertise on the subject, is torn. As Senator for Urban Development, Geisel was responsible for housing construction – and only moderately successful, as he himself admitted in an interview with the Berliner Zeitung. To date, Berlin is short between 100,000 and 150,000 apartments. Construction has become increasingly expensive, partly due to ever-increasing environmental regulations, while at the same time, virtually every new construction project is opposed by local citizens' initiatives. Incidentally, this is also repeatedly opposed by local CDU politicians, as Geisel emphasizes.

Former Berlin Senator Geisel warns against pandering to the Left Party

As Senator for the Interior, Geisel had to have the successful expropriation referendum examined to determine whether its implementation could be constitutional. The high-caliber commission of experts reached no clear conclusion.

For Geisel, a native of East Berlin who has since been pushed to the back of his own parliamentary group, a kind of biographical expertise as a former GDR citizen is also a factor. As an East German Social Democrat, he learned that the West German SPD became successful after the war when it abandoned nationalization in the Godesberg Program of 1959. If his party were to abandon this, he would see it as "an attempt to curry favor with the Left Party." "I don't see that we'll solve the problem with nationalization," says Geisel.