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Left leader Martin Schirdewan
Photo: Heiko Rebsch / dpa
The chairman of the left, Martin Schirdewan, calls for the assets of Russian oligarchs frozen in Germany to be exploited.
“It's absurd that people here don't know how to pay their bills while confiscated luxury goods are being maintained at government expense.
The frozen assets must therefore finally be able to be expropriated after appropriate examination," the left leader told SPIEGEL.
According to Schirdewan, what was confiscated is to be made available for the common good, for example for "a continuation of the 9-euro ticket or other smaller but noticeable relief".
The money for this is "chained and unused in the marinas or frozen in the German real estate market".
In the short term, confiscated properties could be used as warming rooms in the coming winter, says Schirdewan.
»They could also become infrastructural locations for food banks or other social initiatives.
Confiscated money must be invested in social relief.« In addition, the left leader would like to tighten the rules against the concealment of assets.
Germany is still at the bottom when it comes to freezing the assets of Russian oligarchs in Europe.
So far, German authorities have been slow in enforcing sanctions against Russian citizens, and investigations are proving difficult.
As of September 16, assets worth at least 4.88 billion euros in Germany are blocked by EU sanctions, according to information from the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology to Parliament.
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