CDU chief Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer has criticized the SPD because of the controversial statements by Juso boss Kevin Kühnert. "I would never have believed that our old election slogan 'Freedom instead of Socialism' is so up-to-date again in an election," said Kramp-Karrenbauer on Saturday at the CDU State Party Congress Saxony-Anhalt in Halle.
Kramp-Karrenbauer accused the SPD leadership of having trivialized Kühnert's remarks. "For many decades, we have had the better answer to capitalism and socialism in Germany," said the head of the CDU. "And that is the social market economy that puts people at the center, that creates wealth for all and where everyone can live their way."
Kühnert had triggered criticism in his own ranks with his thoughts on a collectivization of companies like BMW. In an interview with the weekly newspaper Die Zeit, he also demanded that private property be confined to real estate.
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The demands are met with great political and media resonance. The head of the German Institute for Economic Research, Marcel Fratzscher, called for comprehensive reforms of the social market economy. Some real estate owners have almost doubled the value of their property in the past five years without doing anything about it, criticized Mr Fratzscher. "If then tenants are put on the door or pressurized to pay exorbitant rent increases, then something has gone wrong."