NEWS FROM BERLIN
Berlin’s state-owned companies raise rents for more than 90,000 flats
Tens of thousands of tenants in Berlin are facing rising housing costs at the turn of the year. The state-owned housing associations want to increase the rent on a total of more than 90,000 flats. This was announced by the State Secretary for Housing, Stephan Machulik (SPD) who said that rents will rise for 20,000 Degewo flats, 27,900 Howoge flats, 12,500 Gesobau flats and 10,200 WBM flats. Machulik explained it is not yet clear exactly how many tenants will be affected by the increase. On average, rents are set to increase by between 7.9 and 9%. Source: tagesspiegel
Indefinite daycare strike in Berlin remains banned
A major defeat for ver.di at the state labour court: the indefinite strike planned by trade unions in Berlin for better working conditions for employees at daycare centres remains unlawful. This was decided by the Berlin-Brandenburg Regional Labour Court, confirming a decision by the lower court. The court considered that an indefinite strike would be a violation of the applicable so-called peace obligation once negotiations with the Tarifgemeinschaft deutscher Länder (TdL) in December 2023 had already discussed regulations to relieve the burden on nursery teachers. The union is conducting joint collective bargaining for all federal states except Hesse. Source: rbb
NEWS FROM GERMANY
Scholz announces further arms exports to Israel
According to the Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), Germany will go on supplying Israel with weapons. The announcement was made during the Bundestag debate on the occasion of the anniversary of the attack on Israel by Islamist Hamas on 7 October 2023. Beforehand, representatives of the CDU/CSU parties had accused the traffic-light coalition (SPD – FDP – Greens) of failing to support Israel, explicitly referring to arms deliveries. Party leader Friedrich Merz (CDU) also said that export licences, for example for ammunition and even the delivery of spare parts for tanks, had been refused for weeks. Source: deutschlandfunk
Shouts of ‘Foreigners out!’ at a major techno event in Würzburg
Once again, the Gigi D’Agostino classic ‘L’amour tojours’ was misused for racist slogans – this time at the ‘Power of Techno’ event at the Posthalle in Würzburg, where DJ Peacock was playing. The song had been played out for just 20 seconds from the speakers, but it was enough time for some people to start screaming ‘Foreigners out!’. According to the organisers of ‘Power of Techno’, the incident only came to their attention afterwards. ‘If we had known, we would have taken immediate action and expelled the people from the hall,’ the organisers told the Main Post. Source: fazemag
Police secretly change press release to disperse protest
The police defended their actions against the Swedish activist Greta Thunberg attending a pro-Palestinian protest camp in Dortmund University. Police forces had banned and dispersed the camp on last Tuesday evening shortly before Thunberg’s planned visit. Dortmund police chief Gregor Lange emphasised that there had been a concrete danger of anti-Semitic crimes. Thunberg was described as a ‘person prepared to use violence’ in an initial police statement on her deployment. The police subsequently described this as an ‘internal error’. Greta Thunberg then accused the German authorities of threatening activists and silencing them. ‘We will not be silenced,’ she concluded. Source: n-tv
‘I don’t want to be a fig leaf’
In an interview, Green member of the Bundestag for Kreuzberg Canan Bayram said she is not running for again. She writes in taz that the party is no longer as well connected as it used to be, specifically citing the days of Hans-Christian Ströbele, a green party founder. Bayram also states she can no longer ‘promise people with a migration background that they can come with their problems and find a non-discriminatory space’. What she points out as particularly problematic is that ‘the Greens once were orientated towards evidence-based substantive solutions in policy areas’, and now it seems to her ‘we are much more involved in populist discourse instead of discussing actual solutions’. Source: taz
Ex-Stasi officer sentenced to ten years in prison
A former Stasi officer, now 80 years old, is accused of shooting a man at a GDR border crossing half a century ago. The Berlin district court has now sentenced him to ten years in prison for murder. This is the first murder conviction against a former Stasi employee. The public prosecutor’s office had previously demanded twelve years in prison. The Brandenburg Commissioner for Dealing with the Consequences of the Communist Dictatorship, Maria Nooke, welcomed the judgement. The trial demonstrates the importance of the legal and social reappraisal of GDR injustice right up to the present day. Source: rbb
Germany makes a move to protect top court against the far right
Many authoritarian governments are trying to curb the clout of their countries’ supreme courts. As far-right populists gain ground in Germany, the government is also working to protect this “bastion of democracy”. A draft law drawn up by the current coalition German government, together with the opposition conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), was debated in the German parliament this week, aimed at enshrining certain features of the Constitutional Court in the German constitution, the Basic Law, making them harder to change. Only the AfD voiced any opposition to the proposal. Source: dw
