A queue stretching down the street in the hip Berlin district of Kreuzberg is usually due to a popular music act… or an available apartment viewing. But on Thursday, just three days before the capital’s state election, it was for a €3 meal at a Kiezkantine (neighbourhood canteen).
Organised by Die Linke, the weeklong pop-up canteen was meant to bring the party’s core message of Berlin bezahlbar machen (Make Berlin affordable) off its posters and onto a plate.
The party wants at least one publicly funded Kiezkantine in every Berlin district, with the cheapest hot meal costing no more than €3. The idea, it says, comes in response to rapidly rising food prices and as a way to bring back affordable communal spaces.
“Berlin is going in the direction of Paris or London, and we have a chance to change that before it’s too late,” said Charlotte, 36, who was volunteering outside at a table covered with party literature in several languages.
Red-lettered pamphlets pitched the expropriation of large private landlords, building thousands of new affordable apartments, and simply opening and renovating more public swimming pools around the capital.
Their messages are clearly packing a punch. In the latest polling, Die Linke stood at 21 percent, just ahead of the CDU, at 20 percent.
If those polls turn into actual votes today that will mark quite the turnaround. Last time out, in 2023, Die Linke took just 12 percent whereas the CDU won the election with 28 percent of the vote.
While CDU’s efforts at re-election have been damaged by city mayor Kai Wegner standing down over revelations that he lied about his whereabouts when the city was hit by a winter blackout, Die Linke have focused relentlessly on the ruling coalition’s weak spot: skyrocketing rents.