Overview
- After a roll-call defeat of its rent-gouging bill in the Bundestag on Thursday, Die Linke announced a nationwide campaign.
- The effort launches with a rally outside the Bundestag on Friday, followed by more than 80 rent assemblies from mid-November to coordinate tenant action.
- The party will expand practical services including an online heating-cost check, extend its rent-gouging app to 15 additional cities, and offer in-person advice through local chapters.
- Leaders describe a national “rent emergency” and accuse large landlords of a “rent mafia,” while keeping a nationwide rent cap as the long-term goal.
- Die Linke also proposes raising the maximum fine for rent gouging to €100,000 and points to the German Tenants’ Association finding that roughly six million renters are severely overburdened by housing costs.