In disturbances after a major demonstration against abolishing the rent ceiling in Berlin, thirteen officers were injured and almost fifty people arrested.
The rally took place in the southeast of the city on Thursday after the Federal Republic’s constitutional court declared a Berlin measure to freeze rents for five years as illegal.
The court ruled that the freezing of rents by the municipality is not permitted because it is already regulated nationally and is contrary to fundamental rights. The judgment means a financial blow to 90 percent of Berlin’s tenants, who now have to pay higher rents.
And possibly also have to pay overdue rent because the rents of 1.5 million homes have already been frozen since February 2020 at the level of the rent of June the year before.
The left-wing administration of the German capital had announced a rental ceiling because rents have been rising sharply for a long time. They increased by 27 percent in new leases in the years 2013-2019, according to the Berliner Morgenpost.
The rent ceiling of the SPD, Die Linke and the Greens was challenged by political rivals and landlords as a draconian measure on ideological grounds that had no legal basis. The supply of rental housing has collapsed. According to Focus magazine, tenants who would benefit the most from the ceiling are residents of relatively old and expensive homes.