“Tegel is a prime example of how Berlin’s future is being gambled away,” said Sebastian Czaja, a local politician who forced the non-binding referendum with a petition drive that collected 250,000 signatures. “Let’s keep the one thing that’s working in this city.”
Czaja’s Free Democrat party has made the preservation of Tegel a key issue in its campaign in Berlin, a bold move in a country where there’s often resistance to large infrastructure projects. The Greens, meanwhile, have been decrying Tegel as too noisy and polluting.
Construction of the airport, known as BER, started in 2006 and it was to open in 2011. It’s since been delayed multiple times, with the price tag doubling to some $6bn. There’s no set launch date a…
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