The Great Green Fiasco: Berlin’s Ice Cream Price Cap and the Absurdity of Leftist Populism, By Richard Miller (Londonistan)
In a move that sounds ripped from a satirical sketch, Berlin's Green Party has proposed a "voluntary" price cap on ice cream, aiming to make a single scoop affordable at 50 cents for children and low-income families. As reported by BILD and critiqued by the blog eugyppius on July 5, 2025, Green politicians Benedikt Lux, Tuba Bozkurt, and Marianne Burkert-Eulitz argue that soaring ice cream prices, averaging €1.81 per scoop nationally and reaching €4 in cities like Munich, are pricing out Berlin's poorer residents. Their solution? A plea to the German Hotel and Restaurant Association (DEHOGA) for ice cream parlours to slash prices on at least one flavour. This follows the Greens' earlier obsession with capping Döner kebab prices, revealing a pattern of childish economic meddling. Far from solving affordability, this proposal exposes the Greens' disconnect from reality and ignores the root cause of rising costs: their own energy policies. Perhaps, instead of subsidising dessert, some of Berlin's well-fed urban elites could benefit from a diet of common sense.
The Greens' ice cream price cap is the latest in a string of populist gestures, following their November 2024 congress where they demanded cheaper Döner kebabs. The logic is simple but flawed: ice cream, a summer staple, is too expensive for low-income families, with scoops costing €1.50–€2.90 in Berlin and up to €4 elsewhere. Their solution is a voluntary price cap, encouraging parlours, especially small, owner-operated ones, to offer a discounted flavour to boost demand. In their letter to DEHOGA, the Greens frame this as a way to make summer "more enjoyable for everyone," as if shopkeepers need politicians to teach them how to sell ice cream.
The absurdity is palpable. As eugyppius notes, shop owners, who live and breathe market dynamics, don't need Green Party bureaucrats to explain pricing. Lowering prices without covering costs would erode profits, especially for small businesses already squeezed by inflation. The "voluntary" label is also misleading; requests from politicians carry an implicit threat of future regulation, as DEHOGA's leak of the letter to BILD suggests, a defensive move against coercive pressure.
The Greens' focus on ice cream prices distracts from the root cause of rising costs: their own energy policies. Germany's Energiewende (energy transition), championed by the Greens, has driven up electricity prices through heavy reliance on renewables and the rejection of affordable energy sources like Russian gas. According to the Federal Statistical Office, German electricity prices for households rose 41% from 2010 to 2024, among the highest in Europe at €0.40 per kWh. Ice cream parlours, reliant on energy-intensive refrigeration, pass these costs onto consumers. The Wall Street Journal reports that Germany's coal phase-out and renewable subsidies have increased grid instability, forcing businesses to absorb backup costs or raise prices.
The irony is stark: the Greens' policies have made essentials like energy, and by extension, ice cream, less affordable, yet they propose band-aid fixes like price caps. As eugyppius argues, expensive energy doesn't save the planet; it drives up prices and misery.Germany's renewable push has led to skyrocketing bills while emissions barely drop, a sentiment echoed by economists who point to Germany's stagnant GDP growth amid high energy costs.
If implemented, the price cap would likely backfire. A 50-cent scoop for "poorer families" would sell out quickly, especially in diverse Berlin, where verification of income status is impractical. As eugyppius predicts, parlours would raise prices on other flavours to offset losses, making ice cream even less affordable for everyone else. Small businesses, already struggling with 7.7% inflation (per Eurostat, 2025), could face closures, reducing competition and driving prices higher in the long term.
The Greens' assumption that cheaper prices automatically increase demand ignores basic economics. Ice cream is a discretionary purchase, not a staple like bread. Forcing price cuts without addressing production costs, energy, labour, ingredients, would squeeze margins, not boost sales. The Financial Times notes that German small businesses face a 20% profit margin decline since 2022, partly due to energy costs. The Greens' proposal, rather than helping low-income families, risks hurting the very parlours they claim to support.
This ice cream fiasco is a microcosm of a broader trend: Leftist populism's belief that state intervention can magically lower prices without addressing scarcity or costs. The Greens' Döner kebab price cap idea, floated in 2024, met similar ridicule, with Der Spiegel reporting that vendors laughed off the proposal, citing rising meat and energy costs. The notion that laws can override market realities,whether for kebabs, ice cream, or rent, reflects a naive faith in state power. As Forbes notes, price controls historically lead to shortages, black markets, or reduced quality, as seen in Venezuela's bread shortages after price caps.
The Greens' focus on symbolic gestures also ignores deeper inequities. Low-income families need affordable energy, housing, and food staples, not discounted desserts. This disconnect fuels distrust, with 2025 polls showing Green Party support dropping to 12% in Berlin, per Tagesspiegel.
Rather than meddling in ice cream prices, Berlin's urban elites, both policymakers and consumers, could benefit from a metaphorical diet. The Greens should trim their bloated energy policies, which burden businesses and households. Reopening affordable energy sources, like natural gas, or accelerating nuclear development could lower costs across the board, making ice cream and essentials more accessible without distorting markets. Consumers, too, might reconsider their reliance on discretionary treats. As obesity rates in Germany climb (25% of adults, per WHO 2024), a cultural shift toward moderation could ease financial and health burdens.
Berlin's Green Party's ice cream price cap proposal is a laughable yet telling example of Leftist populism's disconnect from reality. By ignoring the economic fallout of their own energy policies, the Greens propose solutions that would make ice cream less affordable and hurt small businesses. The answer isn't state-mandated dessert discounts, but a return to pragmatic energy policies that lower costs for everyone. Berliners don't need cheaper ice cream, they need leaders who understand markets and a society that values moderation over indulgence.
https://www.eugyppius.com/p/in-the-latest-leftoid-failure-toil
"A great part of leftist populism rests upon the childish delusion that the state, by issuing simple orders, can actually make things meaningfully cheaper (rather than more or less scarce), and that things are only expensive because we lack laws to stop evil capitalists from price-gouging the poor.
The federal Green party devoted part of their congress last November to demanding lower Döner kebab prices, and now some in their Berlin chapter have decided that ice cream too should be cheaper.
Summer in the capital, temperatures are rising – and with them ice cream pricers. A scoop now often costs more than €1.50, and in some Berlin parlours it can be as high as €2.90, with more for sprinkles. In large cities like Munich and Hamburg, prices up to €4 are no longer uncommon. The national average price per scoop is €1.81.
For many Berlin families on a tight budget, that's too much …
Berlin Green Party members Benedikt Lux, Tuba Bozkurt, and Marianne Burkert-Eulitz want to change that.
Their proposal: A scoop of ice cream for children and young people from poorer families should cost only 50 cents – at least one flavour per store.
In a letter to the German Hotel and Restaurant Association (DEHOGA), they call for an ice cream price cap. "We would be happy to discuss this with you in more detail in the near future and advise whether this is a viable proposal to make the summer even more enjoyable for everyone in our beautiful city," their letter … states.
They want the price cap to be voluntary. The politicians hope that small, owner-operated ice cream parlours will also get on board – in their own interest. They say that cheaper offerings, after all, could increase demand.
The relentless and highly concentrated stupidity of our rulers is a very great weight to bear. Every day they devise some fantastic new and heretofore inconceivable retardation.
1) The idea that actual literal fucking shop owners, who sell their wares every day on the street, need the advice of Green politicians to optimally price their ice cream and "increase demand," is the dumbest thing I have read in a long time. Demand in the absence of profit is not generally desirable.
2) Our wildly inflated energy costs are primarily why ice cream (and most everything else) has become so expensive. These are the direct, undeniable consequences of policies forced through by the Greens themselves. THIS IS WHY THE ENERGY TRANSITION IS BAD YOU MORONS. THIS IS WHY VIRTUOUSLY ABSTAINING FROM RUSSIAN GAS IS BAD. Expensive energy does not save the planet, it just drives up prices and increases general misery. Four-Euro ice cream scoops are the absolute least of it.
3) Were this ill-conceived plan to be implemented, the pre-established poor person's ice cream flavour would sell out immediately – in the case of Berlin, almost certainly to a long line of male migrants claiming to be children. The parlours, to cover their losses, would have to sell the rest of their ice cream at even higher prices. Congratulations, Benedikt Lux, Tuba Bozkurt, and Marianne Burkert-Eulitz – you just managed to make ice cream even more expensive than it needs to be.
4) Yes I get the "voluntary" bit squeezed in there at the end of BILD's reporting. You have to understand that the government is basically a protection racket. Nothing done in response to any request from a political office holder can ever really be voluntary. The reason BILD has this story is almost certainly because the industry association that the Greens tried to pressure (DEHOGA) leaked it to them, by way of defending themselves against this idiocy."
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