In a time of defeats for the Left, it’s something special when we can celebrate a resounding victory. On September 26, some 56 percent of Berlin voters — over 1 million people — backed the radical demand to socialize two hundred forty thousand apartments in the German capital. The fact that this campaign made such successful use of Germany’s constitution (or Basic Law), deployed the tools of organizing, and united such disparate movements is itself a real political achievement. Its victory over the privatizing trends in the rental market and beyond was truly historic — hence its international resonance.

Yet amidst such a heady triumph, we risk losing sight of the fact that the campaign to take back control of the places where we live is not yet over. For the campaign now needs to make sure that the referendum vote is translated into practical change. Here, it has to not only rally and organize people, but also engage in a robust confrontation with the Senate. Incoming Social-Democratic (SPD) mayor Franziska Giffey is already threatening to legally delay implementation, citing funding issues as a reason not to implement the decision. Her claims lack any factual basis, but they are politically effective.

This preventative strategy and the strength of the real estate lobby were foreseeable factors, which the campaign was always going to have to reckon with. If it is to continue to make headway, it will now have to use all legal and political leeway available to it. At the same time, without a strong party in high office to implement its demand, it will reach a certain political limit — precisely the limit that any single-issue movement always reaches. As effective as this mobilization may have been, it cannot be sustained forever.