Status: 09/20/2022 08:28 a.m
Federal Council President Ramelow is outraged that the federal government is intervening in the new relief package without consulting the state budgets. Other prime ministers are also annoyed about the way the federal government deals with the states.
Federal Council President Bodo Ramelow has sharply criticized the way the federal government deals with the federal states in the third relief package. “For me, there is actually no trusting cooperation between the federal government and us,” Ramelow told the “Web.de News” portal. “The federal government intervenes directly in the state budgets without saying a word to us,” said the Thuringian Prime Minister. “It’s like a waiter who comes and presents the bill without having rendered any service.”
“Intervene directly in the electricity market”
According to Ramelow, the federal government is not forced to keep coming up with new relief packages, but rather has to intervene directly in the electricity market. “When the energy companies rake in these excessive profits, it’s a drain of German wealth into private channels.”
Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner speaks of “accidental gains” on the electricity market. But the market is regulated in exactly the same way, according to Ramelow. “It’s no coincidence. It’s systematic looting because the government is watching.”
Dissatisfaction with the prime ministers
Aid packages are good if they relieve the people who really need them, said Ramelow. But with the first relief package, pensioners, the self-employed and students were left out. “If you had wanted to help in a targeted manner, you would have had to say: We make the payments dependent on income, but for everyone.”
Two weeks ago, the traffic light coalition agreed internally on the package intended to cushion the rise in the cost of living. But some prime ministers are now very dissatisfied. According to their own calculations, the federal states should contribute 19 of the 65 billion euros in costs of the package from their budgets.
Hesse’s Prime Minister: “Night and Fog Action”
Hesse’s Prime Minister Boris Rhein asked yesterday in a joint Morning magazine from ARD and ZDF: “Does it make sense, in a cloak and dagger operation – that’s how it was – to stand up and announce a pact without having clarified who should pay for it?”
According to the CDU politician, one cannot put together a package of this size in federalism without having clarified who will ultimately pay the bill.
Söder: “Under no circumstances” capable of consent
SPD-led countries such as Saarland and Bremen are also demanding improvements. And Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder considers the package in the “Welt am Sonntag” in its current form “under no circumstances to be approved”.
The federal states have never been treated so badly by a federal government, the CSU politician wrote on Twitter.
“So far we have not been able to agree because we weren’t even asked. The federal government doesn’t talk to us. You just announce it,” said Ramelow.
Association of Taxpayers: States have an obligation
The taxpayers’ association, on the other hand, sees the states as having an obligation to help finance the third relief package. “The current crises have to be mastered at the national level, which is why the federal states must not leave the federal government alone,” said Taxpayers’ Association President Reiner Holznagel to the newspapers of the Funke media group.
According to Holznagel, 15 of the 16 federal states have budget surpluses totaling almost 27 billion euros this summer. The federal government, on the other hand, has a budget deficit of 66 billion euros.