SPD leader Klingbeil “stunned” by the new coalition dispute
Lars Klingbeil sharply criticizes the new dispute in the traffic light coalition. photo
© Jens Büttner/dpa
The dispute in the traffic light coalition continues – to the frustration of SPD leader Klingbeil. The Minister for Family Affairs has now sent proposals to the Chancellor and the Minister of Finance for basic child security.
According to her own statements, Family Minister Lisa Paus has now submitted her proposals for basic child security, which is a point of contention in the coalition: “The draft law is now being cleared and is available to the Federal Chancellery and the Federal Ministry of Finance,” said the Greens politician to the news portal ” The Pioneer” (Friday).
“As requested by the Chancellor, I presented different variants,” Paus told the portal. She had already told the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” (“FAZ”) that the draft law was ready from her side.
Controversy over child security
Finance Minister Christian Lindner drew clear boundaries in the dispute over basic child security. The head of the FDP told the “FAZ”: “A family of five that receives citizen income receives an estimated 36,000 to 38,000 euros a year from the taxpayer.” It doesn’t help much to pay them high additional transfers, be it 1,000 or even 3,000 euros a year. In addition, it is not helpful to link completely different projects with one another in an unrelated manner. In addition, the following applies: “The logical prerequisite for a new service such as basic child security is that we have a prosperous economy at all.”
With the basic child security, Paus wants to combine benefits for families and increase them at the same time. The FDP is critical of performance improvements. Against this background, Paus had blocked Lindner’s so-called growth opportunities law in the cabinet, which is intended to relieve the economy by around 6.5 billion euros a year.
Most recently, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) had written a word of power with regard to basic child security and asked Paus to submit a draft law that the government had agreed on by the end of August. Then there will be a cabinet retreat in Meseberg.
Klingbeil stated that Meseberg expected that the cabinet would also talk about cooperation and sort it out. The parliamentary director of the Greens in the Bundestag, Irene Mihalic, demanded in the newspapers of the Funke media group that the coalition had to find its way back into working mode after the summer break. “I consider the sharpness in the tone of some coalition members to be of little help.” It is normal for a bill to be postponed again if there is a need for advice. “We have to pull together, the basic child security must come, as well as the Growth Opportunities Act.”
child poverty
The President of the German Child Protection Association, Sabine Andresen, criticized the debate about basic child security. “I find the current discussion unworthy and shameful from the perspective of families with children,” Andresen told the editorial network Germany (RND, Friday). “Because about every fifth child in Germany grows up in poverty. And if the fight against this child poverty is not prioritized, then an opportunity is missed.”
According to a study by the Bertelsmann Foundation, more than every fifth child in Germany is at risk of poverty. Boys and girls in single-parent families or in families with three or more children are particularly affected. A study on how child poverty affects society and the economy will be presented in Berlin on Friday. This was investigated by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) on behalf of the Diakonie.