“With the Left party, above all, what you get is new socialism,” Kristin Brinker, the AfD’s lead candidate in Berlin, told Welt TV. “We know — if we look back — that Berlin has already experienced socialism, and given the state of the real estate market at that time, that’s something many people don’t want.”
Legal hurdles
The AfD has no chance of taking real political power in Berlin, as all other parties have ruled out working with the far right. But a potential left-wing coalition would still need to overcome many hurdles.
Although an expert commission concluded in 2023 that the expropriation proposal is legally feasible, implementing it would be tricky.
Such a move be founded on Article 15 of Germany’s constitution, which allows “land, natural resources, and means of production” to be transferred to “common ownership.” But that provision has never been applied.
If implemented, the expropriation policy would almost certainly be challenged before the constitutional court, with experts arguing the judges could rule either way.
Merz’s government has vowed to prevent the expropriation of real estate companies at the state level by adopting a national law against the practice. But that text hasn’t been drafted and experts are, once again, divided on whether the federal government would have the legal ability to block local efforts.
Despite the obstacles, the Left party, believes it will prevail.
“As for the federal government’s proposal, I’ll say this very clearly: we don’t want any interference … And as a lawyer, I’ll also say clearly that I have very serious doubts about whether that is constitutional,” the party’s lead candidate Eralp told reporters in Berlin earlier this month. “That’s why we stand by our position: We want to expropriate.”