We will expropriate empty flats in Prague! We will make housing cheaper! That would be a roar
In Prague, as in Berlin: getting an apartment is a birth, getting a cheap apartment is a miracle, while the metropolis offers good job opportunities, so it makes sense to live here.
Prices of apartments in Prague? Hell. If a young (or old) family wants to live on their own (and it’s obvious that it doesn’t pay off now, that’s a better mortgage), they have to go into debt for decades and then live with this limiting boulder tied around their necks. We have known for a long time that it is bad with the apartments in Prague, on the left-hand side. We also know for a long time that their prices have fallen away from reality. The situation is similar in modern metropolises, such as Berlin. There now one radical initiative even wants to expropriate the flats. Is that the way? It’s a catalyst.
This is an event “Expropriate Deutsche Wohnen“(German living is a German company that rents and sells flats), initiated by Rousbeh Taheri, who wants to hold a referendum in the German capital on the expropriation of flats of all companies that (individually) own more than 3,000 of them. In total, there are almost a quarter of such flats in Berlin.
Taheri does not deny that “it is a class struggle,” he added, “but we did not start it. The radicality of our demands is a response to the radicality of the market.” In the last ten years, rental prices in Berlin have risen by about 90 percent.
Actions calling for expropriation did not fall from the sky, Taheri ensure that even decently located families (just like in Prague) have a big problem finding adequate housing in Berlin. Let alone poorer families. He has been organizing protests and political meetings with colleagues for years, and little has changed. “From this experience, our movement has become radicalized. We have come to the conclusion that large corporations cannot be changed significantly, that it is necessary to change owners.”
According to some surveys, the “Expropriate Deutsche Wohnen” action is supported by more than half of Berliners.
Prague as Berlin
The objections to such a move are clear: ultra-leftism, communism, threats to private property, market disruption (in our country, the invisible hands of the market would say that), discouraging developers from investing, etc. On the other hand, the term “radical market” is interesting, ie a “radicalized market”, ie a market that has slipped out, is no longer a common market, just as a radical politician or a radical believer is not a common politician and believer. The radical market contains threat and hostility, insensitivity (it is a market, says the opponent).
The Germans are further than we are as a society, what is happening there today, we can have it in a few years. The Berlin housing crisis shows dullness, the indifference of that invisible hand of the market, which does not distinguish commodities. For her, an apartment is the same as a supply of lithium or gold (or, let’s be at home, something like debt, you can also make a lot of money on it). She will keep the apartments empty, only to drive their price (rents) up.
Another Czech example, the commodity of forests and the market intention to make money. This leads to the fact that only spruce trees were planted, companies earned billions, but now the Czech forests are going dill.
Apartment, housing is not a common commodity, an apartment is a necessity if you do not choose to be homeless. Apartments, housing policy, show what kind of society you enjoy, how “human”. Expropriation is a radical step, unacceptable from Czech historical experience (German lawyers point out, however, that this step is possible). But at the same time, it is a logical step: in Berlin (allegedly also in Prague, the numbers are unknown and the mayor Hřib does not know them) there are thousands of flats lying fallow and waiting for even higher value, while people are looking in vain for affordable housing. Berliners realize: it has gone too far.
The only outrage in our country was the idea of finding out who was keeping the flats empty, speculatively waiting for even higher, even more exiled, even better prices (see the “electricity meters” campaign, which almost disbanded the Prague coalition). To come up with someone with the idea of expropriation would be a roar.
At the same time, it’s the same as in Berlin, getting them to give birth, finding a cheap apartment is a miracle, while Prague offers good job opportunities, so it makes sense to live here. Or commute here, but commuting makes the life of Praguers worse.
The “Expropriate Deutsche Wohnen” action is good in that it shows where we are going. Prague should turn back to the people, Prague housing should return to the human dimensions. Working for politics. It is a pity that we do not have an action to “expropriate the empty flats of large companies”, the policy would push for a solution. The action of “electricity meters” is as weak as nettle tea, moreover, it does not take place.