"Die Migranten sind schuld": Left Party Chair Schwerdtner Warns Against Pre-emptive Gen Z Narrative

In an interview published by the Berliner Zeitung on 22 October 2026, Ines Schwerdtner, national chair of Die Linke and one of the key figures in Berlin's coalition negotiations, turned her attention to the 'Gen Z steht auf' movement ahead of its planned 31 October protests. She warned that the public debate was being pre-emptively shaped by a familiar narrative: 'Die Migranten sind schuld und die Linksextremen sind schuld. Das ist das nächste Narrativ' — migrants are to blame and the left-wing radicals are to blame; that is the next narrative. Schwerdtner argued that this framing is 'immer wieder genutzt, um Protestbewegungen in Misskredit zu bringen' (repeatedly used to discredit protest movements), and that the genuine driver of youth unrest is 'die Krise der Bezahlbarkeit' — the affordability crisis, encompassing housing, education, and the cost of living. She noted that the organizers had explicitly rejected violence and banned partisan flags. The article was published a day after the Tagesspiegel reported that Berlin police were preparing for a large deployment, citing concerns about potential infiltration by radical groups.