“If the economy is doing badly, we have no chance.” That’s what happened to Steffen Krach in December said before a leading business association. The fact that the words of the SPD top candidate were more than just a pleasantry towards the host became apparent this Wednesday morning at the latest at the SPD state headquarters in Wedding.
Steffen Krach presents the program with which his party wants to take over the Red Town Hall again after the House of Representatives election on September 20th in the Kurt Schumacher House with the leading figures of the party executive committee. And what’s at the front? The topic of economics – and a clear promise.
“We want to roll out a red carpet for companies,” says Krach, who says he will be leaving his current job as regional president in Hanover at the end of March and has been living in Berlin since the beginning of January. This carpet should also be red in the spirit of the SPD party color and thus emphasize social issues.
But according to Krach’s message to his own party, he should also stand for a more open approach to investors. Krach believes that private investments in housing construction are central. They should create half of the 20,000 apartments that the SPD wants. The red-black Senate had also set itself the goal of 20,000 apartments a year – and regularly missed it.
We want to roll out a red carpet for companies
Steffen Krach, SPD
The fact that Berlin cannot prosper without economic success is reminiscent of the slogan with which Bill Clinton won his first presidential election in the USA in 1992: “It’s the economy, stupid.” For Krach, this also includes a “Berlin feeling”. That’s why he came to Berlin in 2002. But now he no longer notices this feeling.
Courage and a forward-looking approach should therefore characterize the program that the SPD state party conference will decide on at the beginning of May. The application for the World Exhibition Expo, which Prime Minister Kai Wegner (CDU) had long been a stranger to, also plays an important role for him.
Expropriation is (not) an issue
At 56 pages, the draft is half as long as the program from the previous election. Not getting bogged down: The SPD is quite proud of that this morning. What is not included is Steffen Krach’s announcement, which he has heard many times, that he will not expropriate property owners. If you had written in everything you didn’t want, the program would be over 200 pages long, Krach replied to a taz question about it. And that has nothing to do with possible coalitions.
And yet this failure to commit to the SPD opens up the possibility with the Left Party, which insists on expropriation to form a coalition without becoming shaky. Only Krach would then have to think about whether and how he could reconcile this with his previous statements.
What is explicitly stated in the draft: The SPD wants to cap rents and profits of landlords. “We actually want to try to introduce this rent cap,” says Krach – with the caveat that you have to have legal certainty beforehand.
As State Secretary for Science, Krach – although not directly involved – already saw the introduction of Berlin’s first rent cap at the beginning of 2020. The Federal Constitutional Court overturned this in the spring of 2021, pointing out that such matters were not a state matter, but a federal matter.
Although the election program relies heavily on new construction, it explicitly excludes one area. Apartments on the edge of Tempelhofer Feld “are out of the question as long as the existing areas in Berlin are unused”. This contradicts the previous stance of SPD urban development senator Christian Gaebler, who was at least open to peripheral development.
Krach does not claim to represent the only correct and understandable stance on Wednesday morning. But he also says: “I am firmly convinced that we finally have to decide.” However, he believes that certain changes to the design of Tempelhofer Feld are necessary, especially in view of the lack of shade. “It’s not particularly nice for older people in the summer.”
Clearly for a ban on cell phones in primary schools
Krach and the SPD leadership are very decisive in the debate about the use of cell phones in schools. “We need a clear ban on cell phones in primary schools,” he says, criticizing Education Senator Katharina Günther-Wünsch (CDU). They’ll be putting themselves in a better position if they leave the decision to each individual school. A ban on cell phones shouldn’t just apply to the classroom. Cell phones also have no place in the schoolyard or during breaks: “The children should play together there and not play around.”
The candidacy of the 46-year-old, who works with state parliamentarian Bettina König also the state chairmanship of the party is supposed to take over, has so far not been able to halt the decline of the Berlin SPD in surveys. In the most recent election survey in mid-January His party only achieved 14 percent. Although that was one percentage point more than in the previous survey by the same institute, it was not enough to get rid of the fifth and last place of the parties currently represented in the House of Representatives.