Green parliamentary leader Katrin Göring-Eckardt calls for short-term financial aid for people with low incomes because of the high energy prices. “The state must also enable low-wage earners and benefit recipients to absorb such short-term price peaks,” she said Picture on sunday. Anyone who drives to work by car today usually has no alternative, because local public transport is often too poorly developed. The background is also that the French government wants to pay households with an income below 2000 euros a 100 euros premium to compensate for the sharp rise in energy costs.
The partners of a possible traffic light coalition have not yet reached an agreement on this point. The previous federal government points out that the coming government must decide on financial relief. The SPD, FDP and the Greens want to start the coalition negotiations for the formation of a first traffic light coalition at federal level next Wednesday in 22 working groups. They had previously agreed on a twelve-page exploratory paper. Göring-Eckardt pointed out that a basic child benefit had been agreed there. Göring-Eckardt is a member of the “Children, Family, Seniors and Youth” working group in the traffic light negotiations. (October 24, 2021)
Habeck wants to distribute refugees from Belarus in the EU
Green co-leader Robert Habeck proposes that the refugees, who are currently coming to Poland via Belarus, be accepted into the EU in a joint European effort. The Polish government, which is led by the right-wing conservative PiS party, must be supported on this issue, even if it has so far always refused to take in refugees. “Perhaps the PiS government is rethinking. We have to stand by Poland in any case and distribute the refugees from Belarus in Europe. And we have to remind them that humanitarian standards must be adhered to,” said Habeck in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
In addition, the sanctions against the Belarusian regime under Alexander Lukashenko should be tightened. “Lukashenko uses people for hybrid warfare,” said Habeck. His goal is for Europe to relax the sanctions against its regime. The EU must not give in to this “blackmail”. Examples of sanctions are the Belarusian potash exports. In addition, “stricter sanctions against the airlines” must be used to ensure that “flights to Minsk that bring people in need are prevented”. Lukashenko allegedly has refugees from Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries brought to the Belarusian capital by air. (23.10.2021)
NRW-CDU elects Hendrik Wüst as Laschet’s successor
Hendrik Wüst is the new chairman of the CDU in North Rhine-Westphalia. At a state party conference in Bielefeld on Saturday, the state transport minister and prime minister-designate was elected as Armin Laschet’s successor with 98.3 percent. The 46-year-old Wüst had no opponent.
645 yes-votes of the 656 eligible voters went to Wüst. There were 11 votes against and no abstentions or invalid votes. “Thank you very much for this gigantic result,” said Wüst. “I’ll work my way out to justify this advance praise.” Laschet, who ran as the Union’s candidate for chancellor this year, had already made a decision before the federal election not to remain in his offices in North Rhine-Westphalia even in the event of failure. Wüst is expected to be elected as the new Prime Minister in the state parliament next Wednesday.
Previously, the CDU federal chairman Laschet had warned his party not to talk about crisis scenarios after the defeat of the Union in the federal election. Speaking of the “greatest crisis of the CDU since 1945” does not inspire “any voter at all to re-elect the CDU,” he said at the state party conference. Such statements are “complete nonsense”. Rather, the CDU party donation affair in 2000 was in case of doubt a major crisis for the party. “Leave cups in the cupboard, approach things realistically,” said Laschet. Previously, the Federal Minister of Health and CDU Vice President Jens Spahn said on Deutschlandfunk that the CDU was in the greatest crisis in its history.
(23.10.2021)
FDP sees “no sustainable alternatives” to the traffic light
FDP General Secretary Volker Wissing sees “no viable alternatives” to a government alliance with the SPD and the Greens. A failure of the coalition negotiations is “not an option,” said Wissing New Osnabrück Newspaper. The talks will be conducted “responsibly and constructively”, he assured, and reaffirmed the relevance of climate protection in the negotiations. The SPD, Greens and FDP started their coalition talks on Thursday.
“All three parties know that it takes an enormous effort to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees. We are ready and want to make our contribution to achieve real climate protection,” said Wissing. Looking at the annual investment needs of 50 billion euros that the Greens see, he said: “We will negotiate with one another to what extent we invest.” All investments must be “solidly financed”. But it is just as clear that attention must be paid to currency stability.
Wissing does not see investments as a state responsibility alone. “The transformation of the economy towards climate neutrality, the implementation of digitization and the mastering of demographic change are Herculean tasks that the state cannot master alone,” said Wissing. In a market economy, these are also the tasks of companies. “We have set ourselves an ambitious goal of making the necessary investments possible without increasing taxes.” (23.10.2021)
Spahn positions himself for election to the party chairmanship
According to party vice-president Jens Spahn, the CDU is in the greatest crisis in its history. “I would like to shape the new CDU,” said the Federal Minister of Health on Deutschlandfunk. It is an honor for every Christian Democrat to be chairman of the CDU. At the same time, respect demanded to adhere to the agreed procedures and to wait for the district chairperson’s conference planned for the end of next week. After Angela Merkel’s withdrawal from party leadership two years ago, the open competition for her successor did the CDU good, said Spahn. There is currently a broad base need to participate in decision-making. At the same time, there is a need not to have a fight. Therefore, there has to be a team that brings the party together.
After its defeat in the Bundestag election, the CDU is striving for a staff and content renewal. A special party conference is to re-elect the entire board. Party leader Armin Laschet had announced that he would put his own ambitions on hold. Spahn, the economic expert Friedrich Merz, Union parliamentary group leader Ralph Brinkhaus or the foreign politician Norbert Röttgen are considered candidates for his successor.
Merz explained in a guest post for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitunghow the Union should shape its role as an opposition. Authority and the approval of the voters do not arise “in elegant surfing on the wave of the zeitgeist, but only in convincing material work and with convincing people”. In the opposition, the Union must now carry out the practical work on its own, without resorting to the apparatus and expertise of a government: but that is also a great opportunity. Because “rethinking our country and protecting our values at the same time” could also unleash new creativity and be attractive to new groups of voters. (10/22/2021)
The SPD, the Greens and the FDP are aiming for the election of Chancellor in the second week of December
The SPD, Greens and FDP are striving to form a government quickly. FDP General Secretary Volker Wissing said on Thursday at the beginning of the coalition negotiations that a contract should be presented by the end of November, the new Federal Chancellor should be elected and the new government formed in the week of December 6th.
SPD General Secretary Lars Klingbeil said that the work of the individual working groups would start next Wednesday. These should work out positions by November 10th, which should then go to the main negotiating groups. (10/22/2021)
300 people are now discussing the traffic light coalition
Almost a month after the general election in Germany, the SPD, Greens and FDP begin their coalition negotiations on Thursday to form a joint federal government. The main negotiators, six high-ranking representatives from each party, meet with the heads of the working groups at the Berlin exhibition center. A total of 22 working groups with specialist politicians will then negotiate the details of a coalition agreement in the coming weeks. According to the SPD, around 300 people will be involved.
The SPD, Greens and FDP are striving to form a joint government before Christmas. It would be the first so-called traffic light coalition at the federal level. The main sticking points in the search for a joint program are differences in tax and financial policy and the right path to climate protection. The SPD, Greens and FDP are heading towards difficult negotiations about the financial viability of their projects.
The distribution of offices usually comes at the end of coalition negotiations. At least the key position of finance minister is already being publicly debated. Politicians from the FDP and the Greens had brought their respective party leaders Christian Lindner and Robert Habeck into play. The Greens co-chair Annalena Baerbock underlined on Wednesday evening in the ARD “Tagesthemen” that they had agreed to first of all tighten the “substantive guard rails” and then to clarify the departmental issues.
Baerbock insisted that the government should be occupied equally. SPD chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz had always stressed during the election campaign that his cabinet would be made up of women and men in equal parts. That is “not a sure-fire success,” warned the Green leader. (21.10.2021)
Construction industry demands its own building ministry in Berlin
The trade union IG Bau and the construction industry are calling for the future federal government to have its own building ministry. “Housing is the social question of our time. And it deserves the political weight of its own federal ministry,” said the federal chairman of the industrial union for construction, agriculture and the environment, Robert Feiger, the newspapers of the Funke media group. For 23 years, the building department has been leading a “nomadic life” https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/. “It was always an appendage – with traffic, with the environment, with the interior.” The Federal Ministry of the Interior is currently responsible for building.
The general manager of the Main Association of the German Construction Industry (HDB), Tim-Oliver Müller, demanded: “We need a strong Federal Ministry for Construction and Infrastructure to implement the huge projects to modernize our infrastructure.” One of the essential levers for the success of the mobility and energy transition will be an ambitious construction policy, said Müller. “Building must no longer be an annex to a department, but must be placed at the center of action.”
In their explorations, the SPD, Greens and FDP had already agreed on the goal of building 400,000 new apartments per year. “That means almost 1,100 newly built, ready-to-move apartments every day from Monday to Sunday – 46 an hour, three apartments every four minutes,” said Feiger. “This is a round-the-clock task. And it requires full strength, full political commitment and full weight at the cabinet table.” (21.10.2021)