Berlin’s Mayor, Kai Wegner, has decided to stick to his original plan to hold a referendum on the topic of building on the Tempelhofer Feld, despite the Union’s Chancellor candidate, Friedrich Merz, calling for a swift development of the area. Wegner told the Tagesspiegel that he has always been in favor of a peripheral development of the field, as Berlin urgently needs new housing.
He emphasized that the area would still be unique even with peripheral development and that he is convinced that a clear majority of Berliners will support this concept.
This stance contradicts that of Berlin’s CDU leader, Merz, who demanded in a TV quadripartite on Sunday that no new residential buildings be constructed on the site without the explicit consent of the Berliners. If the people refuse, Merz said, the government should be prepared to say, “We are not building on this site and we will build elsewhere.”
Olaf Scholz, the SPD’s Chancellor candidate, expressed agreement with Merz during the same TV appearance. Franziska Giffey, the Berlin’s Senator for Economics and the Mayor’s coalition partner, also wants to stick to the current plan, stating that she has always advocated for a moderate peripheral development, but not against the will of the people.
Lisa Paus, the Greens’ top candidate for the Bundestag, took a stance against the development of the former airport, arguing that the Berliners had already democratically decided and rejected the development of the area in a referendum in 2014.
The Berlin CDU and parts of the SPD, however, still plan to build thousands of new homes on the periphery of the field, citing the ongoing housing shortage as a reason for the change in public opinion on the topic.