Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) has announced a new Investment Protection Act designed to strictly regulate and consequently complicate the conditions under which nationalization takes place, as well as the compensation payments involved. Dobrindt told the newspaper “Bild” that they aim to assert through this law that arbitrary attempts at socialist nationalization are incompatible with the Basic Law.
According to Dobrindt, the new legislation will include three central stipulations. First, in cases of government takeover, compensation will only be possible based on the market value, which must be determined through a formal valuation report. Secondly, the compensation must be provided immediately in monetary form. Finally, under Dobrindt’s plans, nationalization will only be permitted if its necessity can be explicitly proven. This requirement dictates that alternative measures, such as investing in or supporting housing construction, must have been fully exhausted first.
The federal government had previously agreed to this legislative initiative to curb efforts at nationalization at the state level. The political impetus for this measure stems from proposals for a potential red-green-red government in Berlin, which seeks to nationalize large housing construction corporations-a move that was previously supported by a popular referendum request there.
