Bundestag President Julia Klöckner (CDU) and Bundestag Vice President Omid Nouripour (Greens) want to stop a Bundestag construction project costing several hundred million euros in Berlin-Mitte. It is about the originally planned construction of additional office buildings on a currently largely unused area on Schiffbauerdamm on the banks of the Spree opposite the Marie-Elisabeth-Lüders Haus. The Bundestag administration confirmed a corresponding “Spiegel” report.
Save construction costs of 600 million euros
The aim is to save construction costs of at least 600 million euros, currently planned. The Bundestag’s Building and Spatial Commission, which Nouripour chairs, should decide on the two politicians’ recommendations at a special meeting at the end of May. He informed Berlin’s governing mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) and the Federal Ministry of Construction in advance, among others.
Klöckner told “Spiegel” that, especially when budgets are tight, “we shouldn’t push ahead with expensive expansions of parliament that we don’t absolutely need.” If hundreds of millions could be saved, it should be a given that the red pencil should be applied. Nouripour said: “We can no longer afford costly, out-of-control construction projects.”
The “Luisenblock Ost” construction project consists of two parts. According to the report, construction work for part one with Bundestag offices and tap-proof meeting rooms will begin shortly. According to Klöckner and Nouripour, Parliament should withdraw from part two, in which additional Bundestag premises as well as apartments, businesses and service facilities are planned by the state of Berlin.