Opinion
Living during the election campaign: Don’t be such a coward!
During the 2021 election campaign, all parties talked about the high rents and the housing shortage – this year you’re hardly hearing anything about it. Has the problem been solved?
Since December 2021 we have been governed by the “Chancellor for Affordable Housing”. What, you haven’t noticed that yet? Yes, yes, in the summer of 2021, the SPD diligently advertised that they would get the housing problem under control. Olaf Scholz proudly presented his balance sheet from his time as mayor of Hamburg. The new building should work and 400,000 new apartments will be built every year.
In 2023 there were only 294,400. Target missed.
Of course, the Chancellor alone is not to blame for this, nor is the Construction Minister Klara Geywitz from the SPD. As with many of the government’s other projects, a lot came up that the former traffic light coalition partners could not yet foresee during the election campaign at the time. The construction industry is stumbling and this is not only due to political conditions, but also to supply chain problems, energy prices and the shortage of skilled workers.
It’s just that the individual tenant doesn’t really care who is to blame for spending too much of their salary on the apartment. That he cannot afford to move to a larger apartment even though he has had a child. That he can no longer buy his own apartment like his parents were able to.
Aren’t rents still the most important social issue?
In 2021, many politicians spoke about housing the social question of this time. And now? Be silent. The problem has not been solved for most people in Germany, it has not become smaller, on the contrary: it has become bigger.
It’s almost understandable that Olaf Scholz will have a hard time in the election campaign with this record. Who would believe him now with the “Chancellor for Affordable Housing”? But to pretend that the problem no longer exists?
The issue also seems to be sensitive for the other parties. It’s better to leave it alone before you end up being judged by your promises. Of course, they all make one or two suggestions somewhere in their election manifestos. But no one except the left, who don’t influence the election campaign, is putting the issue at the center of their own campaign. The problem remains at the center of the lives of their voters.
Parties could raise their profile
Yes, of course, the housing market is extremely complicated. It is not enough to demand a large number of new apartments and establish a building ministry. At the same time, the topic allows the parties to develop different approaches and sharpen their profile. Exactly what you want in the election campaign of the center parties. The CDU can campaign for subsidies so that families can afford their own house, the SPD can fight for the cooperative approach, the Greens for ecological new construction and renovation, the FDP for the deregulation of the rental market and the Left for the opposite.
The parties just have to loudly represent their approaches, put up posters, stand up for them – and argue about them. Just election campaigns. Because how can people trust a politics that prefers to remain silent about the big problems instead of tackling them?
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
