The FDP rejects criticism from the federal states of the planned third relief package from the federal government as well as demands to suspend the debt brake anchored in the Basic Law again. “I expect the state governments to support the relief package,” said the leader of the liberal parliamentary group, Christian Dürr Süddeutsche Zeitung. The federal government is willing to forego income so that people can find relief in these difficult times. “Inflation is also flushing more money into the coffers of the federal states. It would therefore be completely incomprehensible if the prime ministers insisted on the additional income, meaning that normal families had to pay more taxes despite falling purchasing power,” said Dürr on Sunday.
Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) had previously world on Sunday said that the package decided by the traffic light coalition with a total volume of 65 billion euros is “in no way capable of approval” in its current form. The federal states could not finance the centralized decisions if the debt brake was to be complied with. The country is in an economic crisis that is bigger than the corona pandemic. That’s why “a big solution is also needed in financial terms,” says Söder Augsburg General said.
The Prime Minister of Lower Saxony, Stephan Weil (SPD), who is facing a state election on October 9th, made a similar statement. As early as the prime ministers’ conference on September 28, agreement should be reached “that we are in an emergency and that we have to suspend the restrictions imposed by the debt brake in this situation,” he said. Criticism of the federal relief package also came from Baden-Württemberg’s Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann (Greens), who brought up a blockade in the Bundesrat.
The federal states account for 19 billion euros
According to a statement by the Federal Ministry of Finance, almost 19 billion euros of the planned relief of 65 billion euros will go to the federal states and local authorities. Above all, they would not receive billions in tax revenue from the compensation for cold progression initiated by Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP). However, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) expressly supports the measure. Additional costs are incurred by the federal states, for example due to the increase in child benefit.
The traffic light parties had agreed on an overall package two weeks ago. Changing individual parts would call into question the difficult political balance between the ideas of the three partners. The Liberals are therefore irritated by demands by the Greens parliamentary group leader Katharina Dröge for a double-digit billion amount to cover the energy costs of small and medium-sized companies. The Greens would have supported the fact that the debt brake should be observed again in 2023, as Lindner has planned so far. According to a survey commissioned by the German Press Agency, only 23 percent of Germans are in favor of suspending the debt brake again to finance the relief package.