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Anton Hofreiter received a lot of criticism for his statements in an interview with “Spiegel”.
The Green parliamentary group leader had doubts that in future there should still be unlimited single-family houses built in the city.
Several CDU politicians then attacked Hofreiter.
Felix Pakleppa, managing director of the Central Association of the German Construction Industry, also turned against the Green politician.
Now two CDU local politicians have joined in the debate - and confirmed Hofreiter's position.
Jessica Heller, CDU city councilor in Leipzig and candidate for the Bundestag, told the "Spiegel" that she understood Hofreiter's problem analysis.
In their eyes, "increasing urban sprawl" is "not only problematic for the environment and climate, but also for an aging society".
Long distances to the doctor or the supermarket are a problem for many.
Heller speaks from experience, because Leipzig is the fastest growing city in Germany.
The city councilor also understands people who fear political interference because they dream of owning a home.
However, a municipality must “be able to control what type of housing is created where”.
There are already possibilities for this.
CDU district administrator believes expropriations make sense in some cases
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In addition, the CDU district administrator Götz confirmed Ulrich Hofreiter's account, according to which there is a “gigantic housing shortage” in the cities, while in other regions the value of houses is “in the cellar”.
In fact, they “had to struggle with vacancies and people moving away in rural areas,” said Ulrich, who is the district administrator in Burgenlandkreis in Saxony-Anhalt.
He supported Hofreiter's approach that politics should create a balance between town and country.
Hofreiter had specifically advocated that municipalities should provide affordable housing in the cities with development plans - by making the best possible use of the limited space in the metropolitan areas.
District Administrator Ulrich added that the incentive for owning a home must remain in the country.
Hofreiter's statement that he found it right that a commune should be allowed to expropriate if a village center became desolate or housing could not be created, Ulrich found it not worthy of criticism.
The possibility of doing this is provided for in the Basic Law, albeit "with high hurdles and compensation".
Ulrich knows the problem that in many cases the community has to bear the costs if there are unclear ownership relationships and an owner does not meet his obligations.
He therefore considers a “quicker possibility of expropriation” to be sensible in such cases.
Ulrich expresses himself very differently than his party colleague Christoph Ploß, chairman of the CDU in Hamburg.
Ploß had recently said that Anton Hofreiter's statements showed that the Greens wanted to restrict the freedoms of more and more citizens.
Ploß added that he was ready to fight “against this ideology”.