Kevin Kühnert accuses companies of pure profiteering. The SPD general secretary thinks that the Ukraine war is being misused as an argument for price increases and brings up a profit tax.
“After 40 years of work, I have too little to live and too much to die,” says Liselotte Pawlowsky. The pensioner gets 35 euros too much to be entitled to basic security. “I’m worried about how things will continue.” Liselotte turned down the heating and put on a thick jacket and a blanket at night. They never thought that she could find herself in such a precarious situation again in her life. But her partner died at the age of 75 and all plans were obsolete. “It will destroy you,” says Manuela Siebertz. “It’s eating you up!” Since the family of six no longer had enough money for food and electricity, the parents had to borrow money from the children. They had delivered extra newspapers to afford something special. Christian Siebertz says: “The prices are shooting through the roof. It just goes on and on.”
There are thousands of such cases. After two years of the Corona crisis and the Ukraine war, prices are rising to unprecedented heights. The price increases for heating oil, electricity, fuel and food are drastic. Sat.1 provides a lot of numbers in its “special”. 10.4 million adults can hardly cope with their daily expenses. A kilowatt hour of electricity currently costs 37 cents. That is a 43 percent increase over the past ten years. The gas price has doubled. Inflation is 7.9 percent. A quarter of all Germans are worried whether they will be able to afford their own apartment for a long time given the current prices. Rents in major German cities have risen by 36 percent over the past five years.
“There are many deadweight effects,” complains SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert. “There are companies that make their products more expensive and then say it’s because of the war. People are being fooled there.” The SPD would currently be “thinking about a profit tax”. In other words: Social Democracy wants to make war profiteers pay. Above all, those profiteers who ruthlessly increase the price of their products with false arguments and without necessity should believe in it. Kühnert would also like to get away from one-off payments from the state as quickly as possible because he wants to change substantial things. In the fall, support will be given to single people earning less than 4,000 euros and couples earning less than 8,000 euros. He won’t be more specific.
The price spiral does not stop on the housing market either. A large vacancy contributes to this. In Berlin alone, 20,000 apartments are empty. Wibke Werner, deputy managing director of the Berlin Tenants’ Association, cites renovations as reasons, but also speculation. “We need a rent cap that really works,” demands Wibke Werner. The rent brake had recently failed in Berlin. “Perhaps we also need a cap on energy prices.” The state subsidies are not reaching consumers. “The plug in the energy companies.” SPD General Secretary Kühnert reminded of the vacancy of the Misappropriation Act. Citizens can report to an office in Berlin about apartments that are vacant or rented via Airbnb. “It’s not blackmail, it’s an appropriate thing,” says Kühnert.
“The large housing groups bring private landlords into disrepute,” complains Dr. Kai Warnecke, President of the House Owners’ Association
“If everything were fine here, then, in my opinion, everyone would only have the apartment they live in,” explains SPD General Secretary Kühnert at the end of the evening. Most landlords are not “criminals and exploiters”. But living space is not just any good. It is a fundamental right to have a place of retreat. “A landlord bears a great deal of social responsibility.” He therefore cannot understand why a housing company pays a high dividend to shareholders on the one hand and then flies the white flag because inflation is so great that rents have to be increased.
