{"id":90323,"date":"2026-05-23T05:33:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T05:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/90323\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T05:33:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T05:33:16","slug":"in-berlin-cars-are-a-culture-war-flashpoint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/90323\/","title":{"rendered":"In Berlin, Cars Are a Culture War Flashpoint"},"content":{"rendered":"

Germans, so the old stereotype goes, love their cars. But traffic in their capital is driving many of them mad \u2014 albeit for contradictory reasons \u2014 and has become a surprise hot-button issue in a Berlin election year.<\/p>\n

In a city where complaints over crumbling infrastructure, glacially slow bureaucracy and limited public housing have been people\u2019s main gripes, the rights of car owners have suddenly taken center stage. The right insists that driving restrictions to limit congestion are an attack on people\u2019s freedom, and the left counters that change is needed to protect the environment and the quality of life.<\/p>\n

Berlin has long embraced environmentally friendly initiatives, with its many bike lanes, car-pooling services and extensive public transport. In recent months, green-minded Berliners have moved to take that to the next level, with tens of thousands signing a petition to limit most private vehicles\u2019 ability to enter the traffic-snarled city center, down to just 12 visits per person per year.<\/p>\n

\u201cFewer cars, More Berlin,\u201d read one slogan found on posters plastered across the city during the recent petition drive.<\/p>\n

Those who fought the petition also resent the city\u2019s congestion, but they have a radically different suggestion: Pare back bike lanes and other environmentally friendly innovations that they say make the traffic worse.<\/p>\n

\u201cBan the banning of cars,\u201d the incumbent Christian Democratic Union, the center-right party leading the backlash, said on its own posters.<\/p>\n

That drive to put the ban to a referendum ultimately failed, but the disagreement over traffic is not expected to let up. It has already become a talking point in campaigns for city elections in September.<\/p>\n

The Green Party, which helped run the city for over six years in the last decade, is campaigning for more bike infrastructure and car-free roads.<\/p>\n

Such efforts mirror those in other major European cities like Paris, Barcelona and London, which have recently sought to curb driving and promote cycling and walking as a way to improve the quality of life.<\/p>\n

Oliver Collmann, who helped launch the petition drive, has also suggested that some of the space occupied by parked cars be used for cafes, playgrounds or urban gardens.<\/p>\n

But even in famously liberal Berlin, that push faces strong resistance.<\/p>\n

Conservatives and the far-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, are finding traction in the municipal election campaign by promising to keep Berlin safe for motorists. It is a strategy that relies on bringing out more conservative voters who live in the city\u2019s far corners and commute to work, effectively pitting them against a central-city population that is historically both more open to green policies and better served by public transportation.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo car is illegal,\u201d reads the signs that the AfD has plastered along major commuting roads, in a play on the pro-migrant slogan \u201cno human is illegal.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Berliners, already frustrated by high gasoline prices driven by the Iran war, it is clear that something needs to be done, no matter who wins the election.<\/p>\n

\u201cDriving in Berlin is a nightmare for me,\u201d Anne Mecker, 31, said recently while filling up her red Mazda at a local gas station. \u201cToo many cars, too much traffic, too many accidents \u2014 everything\u2019s such a mess.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frank Weberling, a car enthusiast, agrees. As a child during the Cold War, he lived in what was then East Berlin. Unable to cross the Berlin Wall to reach the western side, he memorized its streets in a full-city atlas and grew up to become a taxi driver.<\/p>\n

Now 65, he still loves his big, slightly old-fashioned yellow Mercedes. But he isn\u2019t sure he would choose the profession again \u2014 and, he says, he takes public transit when he\u2019s off the clock.<\/p>\n

The city of Berlin does not make congestion data readily available, but statistics from the TomTom Traffic Index<\/a> show levels of congestion almost as high as those in New York City, even though Berlin has roughly half as many people. (New York has dealt with its traffic woes in part by instituting congestion pricing<\/a> in the central business district, which led to about 27 million fewer cars entering the area in its first full year of implementation starting in January 2025.)<\/p>\n

For now, Berlin\u2019s pro-car parties appear to be in the driver\u2019s seat.<\/p>\n

The conservative parties\u2019 campaigns follow a broader trend in Europe of casting restrictions on cars as attacks on drivers themselves, said Conrad Kunze, a sociologist who supported the ballot initiative by helping collect signatures.<\/p>\n

He added that conservatives say limits on cars are part of broader claims that \u201cmainstream society is under attack.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the AfD, a party mostly known for campaigning to curb immigration, the focus on cars presents a popular topic that does not touch on migration issues.<\/p>\n

They are on the winning side, at least for now. The petition drive trying to restrict cars in the city center needed roughly 174,000 residents to trigger a referendum.<\/p>\n

It fell some 34,000 signatures short.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

Ken Bensinger<\/p>\n

Reporter<\/p>\n

Spencer Pratt’s quixotic run for mayor of Los Angeles has gotten a turbo boost from a flood of AI videos bashing his opponents that his campaign, notably, did not make. It’s allowed him to run on the cheap while getting a lot of attention, but what does it say about the future of political campaigns? Will this race, heading toward a June 2 primary, presage copycats in national races?<\/p>\n

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