Enlarge image
Chancellor Olaf Scholz: No quick results in sight
Photo: Filip Singer / EPA
Whether heating costs, fuel costs or groceries - for many citizens, the rising prices across the board have become a major problem.
Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz is making the fight against inflation a top priority and has invited trade unions, employers, the Bundesbank and scientists to a dialogue this afternoon.
As part of the so-called concerted action, proposals are to be developed in order to counteract the price pressure.
However: According to Scholz, there should be no results at the start of the campaign this Monday.
There are enough demands against it.
What does the Chancellor want to achieve with the meeting?
Scholz is very concerned about rising energy prices, as he said in an ARD interview on Sunday.
»If the heating bill suddenly increases by a few hundred euros, that's a sum that many people can't really cope with.
That's social explosives.« The chancellor is aiming for a longer-term process.
Observers expect that decisive rounds of concerted action will not follow until after the summer break - when the actual extent of the energy and price crisis becomes clearer.
The most pressing problem at the moment is the price of gas.
Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) warned of a price explosion at public utilities if Russia turns off the gas tap and large suppliers continue to get into trouble.
A chain reaction with far-reaching negative consequences seems possible.
The biggest challenges in terms of prices overall - according to Scholz - will not follow until next year.
"For this year, almost everyone who has done the math says that we have absorbed about 90 percent of the price increases among the lower and middle income groups through the many measures we have taken."
What are the demands?
energy price cap
The unions want to push through relief in energy costs.
The chairwoman of the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB), Yasmin Fahimi, is campaigning for a cap on energy prices.
She told the "Bild am Sonntag" about the design: "A basic requirement for electricity and gas is defined for every adult and every child.
There is a price guarantee for this amount of kilowatt hours.« More energy consumed has to be paid for.
"That would not only be a really effective incentive to save energy, but also a significant relief, especially for households with low incomes." Left-wing faction leader Dietmar Bartsch demanded something similar.
At the same time, Fahimi called for the planned CO2 pricing to be suspended.
"I don't think it makes sense to implement the planned increase in the price of CO2 next year because we are already at a price level that is much higher than all the original plans."
The idea of an energy price cap hardly finds any resonance with the traffic light politicians.
The energy policy spokeswoman for the SPD, Nina Scheer, considers an energy saving bonus to be more appropriate than a price cap, as she told the »Welt«.
Every gas saved that does not have to be bought expensively "will relieve us all in terms of price and ultimately also secure jobs".
The Greens parliamentary group leader Julia Verlinden argued in a similar way.
The energy policy spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group, Michael Kruse, also said that state-mandated amounts of energy are not the right way, because needs and living conditions are very different.
Higher wages and further relief
In principle, the unions resist the idea that price increases are fueled by higher wages.
Ver.di boss Frank Werneke said: "Permanently rising prices must be fully offset by permanently effective wage increases." This also applies to pension adjustments and the minimum wage.
The relief must be delivered later.
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier also called for further relief.
"We haven't experienced that before, four times higher prices, not only at the gas stations, but above all for the gas," Steinmeier said on ZDF at the weekend.
Instruments will have to be considered to make life easier, especially for low-income earners.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz, on the other hand, was cautious.
He pointed to the previous relief measures amounting to 30 billion euros.
"Right now all these measures are being rolled out," he said.
"That won't work now by agreeing on a 30 billion euro package (...) and then we'll discuss the next ones."
Disputed one-time payment:
Reports also circulated that Chancellor Olaf Scholz wanted to relieve employees with a one-off payment.
To be paid by the companies, flanked by the state, which would waive taxes and levies on the cash injection, and offset to some extent by union wage restraint in collective bargaining.
The idea met with little enthusiasm from the unions.
Scholz has dismissed reports of the idea of a one-off payment as "a free invention."
"Of course we thought about how we could support union activities, especially when prices go up next year," he said.
"But no one is suggesting that that's why there shouldn't be any actual wage increases."
Idea of redistribution:
The Greens are demanding that those on basic security and generally small and medium incomes should be relieved.
Your deputy parliamentary group leader, Andreas Audretsch, has brought into play a contribution from the particularly wealthy.
"Everyone must now ask themselves how they can make a contribution," said Audretsch.
"That's especially true for those who have a lot, for the richest."
FDP against more spending and higher taxes
Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner rejects more debt and higher taxes.
This "would be toxic and an impoverishment program," said the head of the FDP to the dpa news agency.
Even massive increases in government spending are out of the question for him.
"A central contribution of the state is to avoid additional price pressure through solid finances." Instead of just dampening the consequences of inflation, the state must combat the causes.
»At the same time, we should reduce price-driving subsidies and do everything we can for cheaper energy.«
Different accents of economists:
"Only higher wages and social benefits can compensate for the damage to people with middle and low incomes in the long term," said Marcel Fratzscher, President of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW).
The economist Achim Truger, on the other hand, told the Bayern media group that there should be no excessive wage increases.
However, a continuation of the corona-related wage restraint does not make sense either.
"In principle, it would also be possible to curb inflation through temporary energy tax cuts or price caps," says Truger.
"But that would be counterproductive, because it would reduce the current savings incentives, which are so important."
Climate money and other price caps:
The social climate money proposed by Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) should come back to the table in the concerted action.
According to the proposal, climate money should be paid once a year – for single people who earn less than 4,000 euros gross per month, and for married people with a total of less than 8,000 euros.
The CDU social wing called for a reduction in VAT on staple foods.
The new Left Party chairmen Janine Wissler and Martin Schirdewan demanded a price cap for staple foods in the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
Historical example of concerted action:
1967 saw the first downturn in the economic boom of Germany.
The SPD Economics Minister Karl Schiller therefore wanted to coordinate the anti-crisis policy in a concerted action with employers and trade unions.
The state wanted to use its own measures to influence price developments and the economy.
Consensus with the social partners should help in the matter - and strengthen democracy and community spirit.
Chancellor Scholz also wants that.
His motto: »We have to link arms and stick together.«
mmq/dpa