The controversial cooperative “Die eG” is taking legal action against statements made by the chairmen of the CDU and FDP in the committee of inquiry into the affair surrounding the establishment and promotion of the cooperative.
Werner Landwehr, the executive board of Die eG, which is subsidized with more than 20 million euros in public funds, had a lawyer deliver a “cease and desist declaration” to CDU chairman Stefan Evers to forbid him from making certain statements about the rent increases caused by the cooperative to repeat.
Evers is unimpressed by this: “We’re digging deep into the green real estate felt here – of course you encounter resistance there.” He does not want to make the required declaration. “I can only hope that this eG does not use funding to intimidate MPs with star lawyers just because they do uncomfortable educational work.”
In favor of Die eG, the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district exercised the municipal right of first refusal – against the recommendation of the Senate Department for Finance – and brought five tenement houses into the possession of Die eG. The legal dispute is also about how much the tenants of the apartment buildings have been burdened financially since Die eG took over the houses.
Their lawyer explained: The tenants should voluntarily pay rental prices there with a surcharge of up to 50 percent – six euros per square meter including operating costs compared to four euros previously. This should only affect unsubsidized apartment buildings.
Schlömer: “Highly questionable understanding of democracy”
The board of directors of Die EG also wants to prevent statements by the FDP chairman Bernd Schlömer. He had said after the last meeting of the committee of inquiry: “The cloak of silence was spread over green construction felt.”
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Schlömer assessed the use of legal remedies as follows: “It is a highly questionable understanding of democracy to shut up the press and parliamentarians just because we are fulfilling the task of critical assessment and parliamentary control. As the old saying goes: hit dogs bark! “
During the examination of the purchase of the initially six residential buildings by Die eG, the Court of Auditors found that the building councilor of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, Florian Schmidt, had “improperly exercised pre-emptive rights”. The Greens politician did not adequately check whether the recently founded cooperative even had the financial prerequisites for the acquisition.
Finance Senator Matthias Kollatz (SPD) had said before the investigative committee that he had expressly warned Schmidt and those responsible in other districts in a letter against hasty purchases. “Unfortunately, this did not mean that the exercise of further rights of first refusal was omitted.”
In essence, the question is whether the establishment of Die eG and its ample supply of public funding for the politically desirable acquisition of rental houses is a case of red-red-green patronage – or whether it is an example of a housing policy committed to the common good to be discredited by representatives of the opposition.
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