A new survey conducted by the Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK) points to a large majority of Berliners supporting the city’s bid to host the 2035 World Expo, a roughly six-months-long international exhibition of unparalleled scale held every five years to showcase the latest innovations in technology and promote cultural exchange.
According to the poll reported by Tagesspiegel, 65% of Berliners are in favor of the event taking place in the city, with voters across the political spectrum sharing the positive attitude. CDU supporters are most in favour, with 80% of them backing the project, although voters of the SPD and Green Party are not far behind.
Proponents of Berlin hosting the Expo point to the numerous economic benefits it would bring the city, many of which would be useful to the everyday life of Berliners far beyond the months during which the Expo would take place. Notably, the project would see the extension of the U7 line to BER Airport and drastic expansion of ICE connections from the airport train station, among others. The site of the former Tegel Airport would also see much of the planned investments; in the process, 100,000 jobs would be created. According to the Berlin-Brandenburg Investment Bank, all of this would be budget-neutral.
Corporations such as Siemens, BER Airport, Bayer, BASF and the Tesla Gigafactory are among institutions willing to bring the Expo to Berlin and, as reported by BILD, they intend to send out a joint letter of support to convince the federal government to back it. Germany has been officially eligible to submit a bid to the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) since the beginning of the month.
Politicians of the Berlin SPD, who are among the major proponents of Berlin hosting the Expo, have called on Governing Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) to be more proactive in pushing forward the project. They argue that rather than being mutually exclusive with the Olympics bid, which is Wegner’s clear priority, it could very well be complementary to it.
Berlin’s main competition in hosting the event comes from the US city of Miami; Donald Trump announced America’s candidature back in January via his platform Truth Social. Which of the two would get to hold Expo 2035 – provided Germany submits its bid – would be decided in 2027 or 2028 by the 184 member states of the BIE in Paris.
