Berlin, August 31st, 2026 (The Berlin Spectator) – With Berlin heading to the polls on September 20th, the parties competing for seats in the Abgeordnetenhaus (House of Representatives) have laid out sharply different visions for the city’s future.
The conservative CDU wants to keep Berlin car-friendly. It opposes removing parking spaces and installing more bollards, backs the continued construction of the A100 city highway, and wants tougher rules on e-scooters parked on sidewalks. The center-left SPD is pushing a return of the Deutschlandticket for 49 Euro, a citywide 10-minute transit frequency, and an expanded tram network, while rejecting further A100 construction in favor of maintaining existing roads and bridges.
The center-left Greens want to cut car traffic further, propose women-only subway compartments for safety, and are campaigning for a nine-Euro Deutschlandticket, while the far-left Die Linke wants transit costs tied to income, including a free Deutschlandticket for anyone who gives up their car, and eventually a fully fare-free transit system.
Drone Deliveries
The extremist right-wing AfD insists cars remain indispensable, calls for scrapping bollards and restoring lost parking spaces. This party wants a pilot district for drone deliveries. The center-right FDP favors free choice of transport mode, backs the A100 extension, and opposes any further reduction in parking.
Berlin’s parties also have very different ideas on housing. The CDU rejects expropriating housing from private companies, favoring new construction and stricter enforcement against rent gouging, alongside support for private home ownership. The SPD wants 100,000 new apartments by 2031, half of them from public or nonprofit developers, plus a “Grundsteuer C” property tax aimed at speculative land holding.
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The Greens would require landlords with 50 or more units to keep a share of rents affordable and back the “Deutsche Wohnen & Co. Enteignen” expropriation referendum. Die Linke promises a one-year rent freeze on publicly owned housing within its first 100 days, along with a constitutional ban on privatization. In the meantime, the AfD opposes expropriation and rent caps altogether, wants subsidized housing prioritized for longtime Berliners through a points system, and would end property tax.
Rooftop Additions
The FDP rejects rent caps and tenant protection zones outright, favoring private-sector construction and densification, including high-rises and rooftop additions.
Another big subject is security. The CDU places it at the top of its platform, calling for expanded video surveillance with AI support, lowering the age of criminal responsibility from 14 to 12, and faster deportations of foreign offenders. The SPD favors community policing, more visible foot and bicycle patrols, and keeping suspicionless police checks to a minimum.
According to the Greens, security cannot come from surveillance alone. They want to decriminalize fare-dodging, and would restrict rather than expand video monitoring. Die Linke wants to shrink and rein in police powers, redirecting funds toward youth and social work, and would dissolve the domestic intelligence agency altogether.
Criminal Responsibility
The AfD ties Berlin’s security problems directly to migration, calling for an asylum admission freeze, a special deportation unit, and lowering the age of criminal responsibility to 12. The FDP wants a well-equipped police force with special powers in known crime hotspots, but firmly rejects mass surveillance.
Ahead of the election, the parties in Berlin also argue about education. While CDU wants to preserve and strengthen the Gymnasium track, introduce mandatory religion or ethics classes, and speed up hiring procedures for teachers, the SPD promises tuition-free education throughout, aims to double the number of Gemeinschaftsschulen (comprehensive schools), and opposes expanding early-track Gymnasiums.
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The Greens want less pressure on students, more flexibility on school start times, and doubled comprehensive-school capacity. Die Linke wants every comprehensive and secondary school to offer a path to the Abitur (A-levels, high school diploma) and would encourage Gymnasiums to convert into comprehensive schools.
Woodworking Classes
In this regard too, the AfD has different ideas. It wants to reintroduce local-history and woodworking classes at elementary level, scrap the lottery system for 30 percent of secondary school places, and require flagpoles for the German flag at every school. The FDP wants mandatory extra German lessons during school holidays for children lacking language skills and would end civil servant status for teachers.
Big discussion have been going on about Berlin’s culture policy as well. The CDU calls high culture “not a luxury,” wants to protect major cultural institutions financially, and would relocate the central library to a former department store at Alexanderplatz square. The SPD wants secure funding across the cultural sector, binding minimum fees for artists, and a merger of the library’s two current locations.
The Greens stand for independent juries deciding on cultural funding and top appointments, along with mandatory minimum artist fees. Die Linke wants the culture budget raised from under two percent of the city budget to three percent over time, plus 1,000 new studio spaces for artists. While FDP wants cultural institutions to secure more private funding and would convert them into foundations to reduce political influence, the AfD wants to preserve the German language against what it calls a politically driven “re-education project” via gender-neutral language, and supports reconstructing historic buildings like the Bauakademie.
