This is what the German Tenants Association expects for the winter, which is predicted to be difficult due to the explosion in heating costs. “Winter of rage” fears the Service for the Protection of the Constitution.
The energy crisis in Germany it also affects the housing sector. The head of the Tenants Association, Lukas Siebenkotten, warns in an interview with German radio DLF of serious consequences for tenants due to rent increases in the coming winter.
According to Siebenkoten it is estimated that over 20,000,000 tenants in Germany may find themselves under financial pressure as they will struggle to pay the increased rent due to increases in both heating and utility costs. For this reason, the Association of German Tenants is asking for better protection of tenants from possible evictions, but also flexibility in the payment of debts to the owners, for example of communal services, which in Germany are usually high.
Interventions by the head of the Tenants Union have been frequent in recent days, indicative of the widespread concern. He is even asking for a review of the conditions for providing housing assistance. “We should significantly raise the income limit for people who want to claim housing benefit,” he says via the Tagesspiegel newspaper, setting the limit for a German household at 5,000 euros a month.
“Winter of Rage”
In the meantime, yesterday’s statements in Welt am Sonntag by Jörg Müller, head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in the state of Brandenburg – an agency belonging to the German secret services – are causing a sensation, who warns of an escalation of violence in winter. “Extremists dream of a winter anger” he said characteristically stressing that extreme circles may exploit the energy crisis and high inflation “for their own purposes against the state”.
On the same wavelength, the Secretary of the Interior, Nancy Fezer, who, speaking to the same newspaper, points out that “the enemies of democracy are waiting for exactly this, to take advantage of crises to spread their fantasies of destruction, fear and uncertainty”. However, the German authorities expect the so-called “Querdenker” movement, a mix of conspiracy theorists, far-right and pandemic deniers, to be at the center of similar manifestations of social violence.
At the same time, the new co-chairman of the Left, Martin Sirdevan, also warns of social unrest in Germany soon. Energy poverty, together with high inflation, could lead to an unprecedented situation for Germany, where people will not be able to pay for daily food, he estimates, even speaking of a “crisis of democracy” that he is facing already Germany.
DW Dimitra Kyranoudis, Berlin
Read the News today and get the latest news. Follow Skai.gr on Google News and be the first to know all the news.
