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The SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert in Berlin
Photo: Christoph Soeder / dpa
Finding affordable housing is becoming a problem in more and more German cities.
SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert says he has experienced this first-hand for a long time.
"I've been looking for an apartment for over a year now," said Kühnert in the "Tagesspiegel Checkpoint" podcast "Berliner & Pfannkuchen".
Fortunately, unlike others, he doesn't have the pressure of having to leave his current apartment, "but it's not a joyful occupation," says Kühnert.
"Now, as a member of the Bundestag, you don't earn very badly, everyone can read how much that is, so by and large it's not a problem of money.
But it fails because of the offer.«
The »plague on our housing market«
Members of the Bundestag currently earn 10,012.89 euros per month.
Kühnert sees the problems on the Berlin housing market among other things in "circumvention instruments".
Above all, the principle of furnished and partially furnished rentals is spreading.
»Unfortunately, this has become a common way of circumventing the rental price brake, cap limit and other rental regulations.
It's a real imbalance and plague on our housing market," says Kühnert.
In an interview with the Düsseldorfer Rheinische Post, Kühnert also dished out against the CSU.
With a view to the resignation of CSU General Secretary Stephan Mayer, he sees the party in trouble.
»A good year before the state elections, the CSU scandals are noticeably increasing.
Markus Söder is more concerned with managing his CSU and only leads the Free State as a part-time job,” said Kühnert.
Söder is said to be an instinctive politician.
“These days the impression is that the opposite is the case.” Mayer’s resignation is “just the new sad climax of a long list of wrong appointments by Markus Söder”.
Söder loses his "instinct"
Kühnert recalled the mask deals by Union politicians at the beginning of the corona pandemic and the former Minister of Transport Andreas Scheuer (CSU), “who, as Minister of Transport, left the taxpayers a scandalous grave of billions and was still not withdrawn from the government by Söder”.
The attacks by ex-Secretary General Mayer on a journalist cannot simply be described as bad style, "but as what they are: attacks on press freedom," said the SPD politician.
Mayer announced his resignation as Secretary-General on Tuesday evening after just over two months in office.
The 48-year-old named health reasons in a written statement.
At the same time, however, he admitted that, in retrospect, the choice of words "possibly" was not appropriate to a "Bunte" journalist.
The "Bunte" had reported that Mayer, contrary to public statements to be single and childless, has an eight-year-old son, for whom he recently paid no maintenance.
Mayer is said to have threatened the authors on the phone before publication.
“I will destroy you.
I'll find you, I'll follow you to the end of your life," Mayer said, according to "Bunte," among other things.
mrc/dpa
