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Social Democrat Franziska Giffey, the former German Minister of the Family, is the first woman to take over the post of mayor of Berlin, after the vote by the city delegates.
Franziska Giffey was sworn in on Tuesday (December 21st) in front of the Berlin parliament after being elected to the House of Representatives. The decision makes the regional leader of the Social Democrats (SPD) in Berlin, the city’s first female mayor. Senate Speaker Dennis Buchner said 84 lawmakers voted in favor of Giffey, while 52 voted against and two abstained.
Giffey, who served as Home Minister until her resignation in May this year, needed at least 74 votes to be elected. She now heads the state government of the German capital, which consists of a coalition between the SPD, the Greens and the Left Party, a coalition that together has 92 deputies.
Giffey resigned from the last government of former Chancellor Angela Merkel, after allegations of plagiarism in her doctoral thesis. She was later stripped of her doctorate. Prior to joining the national government in 2018, Giffey was best known as the mayor of Neukölln district in Berlin.
Housing, top priority
In her new assignment, Giffey has identified housing as a top priority. Rising rental prices in Berlin is one of the most debated topics. The Giffey government will have to decide how to act on the outcome of a non-binding referendum in September, in which voters backed the idea of the city expropriating about 240,000 apartments from corporate owners. About 56% of those who voted were in favor of taking action against real estate companies, which manage more than 3,000 properties. Giffey has spoken out strongly against expropriation. The decision, voted on Saturday (18.12) by delegates at a ruling party conference, puts the SPD against its two junior coalition partners in the Berlin government.
The three parties signed a roadmap on Tuesday (December 21st), calling for a “public-private partnership for new construction and affordable housing”. While Giffey is the first woman to be elected mayor of Berlin, Louise Schroeder of the SPD served as mayor from May 1947 to December 1948. Schroeder had previously been deputy mayor and was appointed to the post after her predecessor. resigned shortly after World War II./DW
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