Status: 05.09.2022 08:09 a.m
Critics see many open questions in the federal government’s planned relief package – or consider it insufficient. The traffic light expects quick relief in the electricity price.
After the traffic light coalition agreed on a third relief package, North Rhine-Westphalia’s Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst called for federal and state consultations on the subject. “If the federal states are to pay, they must also be able to make decisions,” said the current chairman of the Prime Ministers’ Conference to the newspapers of the Bayern media group. There are still many open questions. “This should be discussed very promptly at a Prime Minister’s conference with the Federal Chancellor.”
Baden-Württemberg’s Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann also called for a Prime Ministers’ Conference to be convened with Chancellor Olaf Scholz as soon as possible. The relief package would have a massive impact on state budgets, he told the dpa news agency. That is why the states urgently need to talk to the federal government about this.
“Inconcrete, incomplete and insufficient”
In addition to the demand for the states to have a say, there is further criticism. CSU regional group chief Alexander Dobrindt described the traffic light compromise as “unspecific, incomplete and insufficient”. “Necessary measures against the energy price explosion remain unresolved,” he told the dpa news agency: “no decision to continue operating the nuclear power plants, no decision to reduce gas prices, no decision to stop the gas levy, no clarity on how to reduce energy costs, neither at the pump nor with gas, nor with electricity”.
SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert promised speed for the electricity market plans. “It has to be quick now. We’re looking for a common solution at European level in the short term, it’s already happening,” he told the newspapers of the Neue Berliner Redaktionsgesellschaft. “If we don’t find a European way, which I don’t think, then we’ll implement the profit skimming nationally.” Either way, the Germans could rely on the price brake coming.
Green leader Omid Nouripour expects the electricity price brake to be introduced “in a few weeks”. in the Deutschlandfunk He also said some households could expect 100 percent of their electricity use to be capped. As an example he gave a family in a small apartment. So far, the government has not decided where the limit for the basic consumption of electricity should be, up to which the price should be capped.
IW boss: relief for electricity customers incalculable
The economist Michael Hüther was critical of this project. In his opinion, the planned interventions in the electricity market are too vague. “The taxation of chance profits remains just as incalculable as the resulting relief for electricity customers,” said the director of the employer-related Institute of German Economics of the “Rheinische Post”. “All in all: vague solution whose volume and effect remain unclear.”
Hüther emphasized that the gas price has such a lasting effect on the price of electricity because there is no electricity that can be produced more cheaply. “That is likely to change again in the fall. It would be important to speed up the gas-fired power plants from generating electricity and connect cheaper coal-fired power plants to the grid.” For the nuclear power plants, the stretching operation, i.e. the somewhat longer use of existing fuel rods, should be tackled.
Child protection association: child supplement too low
The President of the German Child Protection Association, Heinz Hilgers, assesses the federal government’s third relief package as positive overall. “It is widespread and will bring benefits to many people,” he told the “Redaktions Netzwerk Deutschland”.
However, he criticized the fact that the maximum amount of the child supplement for low-income families should only increase by 21 euros. “That disappoints me,” he said. Because low-income households spend a large part of their income on food, and the inflation rate for them is not around seven percent, but twice as high.
Local transport ticket: City Day sees the federal states as a duty
City Day President Markus Lewe called on the states to accept the offer from the federal government and to jointly launch a nationwide Germany ticket as a successor to the nine-euro ticket for local public transport. After the agreement in the coalition, the countries would have to move, Lewe told the “Rheinische Post”.
According to Lewe, however, the funds provided by the federal government for such a new local transport ticket would be far from sufficient. Lewe warned that funding should not ultimately be left to the cities. At the same time, massive investments in local public transport must continue.
Left starts “hot autumn” in Leipzig
The high energy prices are a concern for many citizens. The left now wants to put pressure on the government on the street and start its “hot autumn” against the government’s energy and social policies. “Energy prices and inflation are a threat to democracy in our country,” said the left-wing faction’s commissioner for Eastern Europe, Sören Pellmann, of the dpa news agency.
The left chairwoman Janine Wissler rejected the accusation that her party was protesting together with the right against the energy and social policy of the federal government. “It is perfectly clear that the left will not take to the streets together with the right,” said Wissler in the Deutschlandfunk. Her party will not leave the streets to the right, “not on Mondays and not on any other day”.
Several thousand people are expected to attend the protests announced for the evening in Leipzig. Demonstrations have been announced by the Left Party, the AfD and the far-right splinter party Freie Sachsen, among others. According to the authorities, the largest demonstration was registered by the Left Party. Up to 4000 participants are expected. In protest against announced meetings of right-wing extremists, the action network “Leipzig takes place” has also called for a rally.