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Economists Clemens Fuest and Veronika Grimm: "Not yet concrete"
Photo: Stefan Boness / IMAGO
Leading economists give mixed testimony to the traffic light coalition's third relief package.
Clemens Fuest
, head of the Ifo Institute, criticized it as not being accurate enough.
The coalition is "partly with the watering can on the way," he told the "Bild" newspaper.
According to Fuest, the relief in electricity prices will also benefit households with higher incomes, which can bear the electricity prices themselves.
The extension of the sales tax reduction for the catering trade "doesn't really belong in an energy price relief package".
On the other hand, it is positive that the federal government is trying to »allow prices and thus incentives for energy saving to have an effect«.
According to Fuest, the tax and duty exemption for a concerted action does not make sense, the state should leave wage setting to the collective bargaining partners.
The federal government wants to exempt additional payments from companies to their employees, which are intended to compensate for rising prices, from tax and social security contributions up to an amount of 3,000 euros.
»Do not overshoot the target when skimming off random prizes«
Economics
Veronika Grimm
praised the relief package.
Subsidies would "essentially be given to people who are less able to cushion the hardships themselves," she told the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung".
According to the economist, the measures on the electricity market and to cushion the special burdens on gas customers remain “unspecific”.
When skimming off random profits, one should not overshoot the target in order not to make investments unattractive.
»We urgently need these investments in order to overcome the energy crisis in the medium term.«
Sebastian Dullien
, scientific director of the Institute for Macroeconomics and Business Cycle Research (IMK) of the trade union-affiliated Hans Böckler Foundation, praised many "important and sensible" individual measures in the package - such as targeted support for pensioners and students, increasing child and Adjustment of citizen income.
This would close some gaps in justice.
Brigitte
Knopf
, climate researcher and member of the Expert Council for Climate Issues, wrote on Twitter of a "bad signal for climate protection", although there were also some positive measures.
The
Paritätische
Wohlfahrtsverband
considers the increase in the Hartz IV standard rate to be too low.
The increase is "not even a compensation for inflation and therefore not at all acceptable," said general manager Ulrich Schneider of the editorial network Germany.
"We'll have to request improvements there."
The president of the social
association VdK
, Verena Bentele, called the result "impressive".
The measures will prevent an explosion in electricity prices.
However, a gas price cap is missing.
The
DGB
chairwoman Yasmin Fahimi made a similar statement.
"All in all, the catalog of measures is suitable for actually noticeably reducing the burden on people and companies," explained Fahimi.
Ver.di
boss Frank Werneke described the relief package as "only half a step".
What is needed in particular is an effective price brake for electricity and gas.
This is how his union will measure the coalition, Werneke explained.
There were also no further direct payments for people with medium and rather low incomes.
Peter Adrian, President of the Association of
German Chambers of Industry and Commerce
(DIHK), does not consider the package to be the announced “massive hit”.
It reduces the energy price shock, especially for private households.
The help for companies is not specific enough.
Anja Weber, Chairwoman of the German
Trade Union Confederation
NRW, spoke of a clear and substantial signal of solidarity.
Prompt implementation is crucial.
Union is pushing for longer nuclear power plant terms
The opposition parties criticized the package.
The first parliamentary secretary of the Union faction,
Thorsten Frei
, called it "extremely vague".
"The coalition's resolutions remain vague at crucial points and have one major weakness: they contain no proposals to combat the causes of the price increases by strengthening the supply side," Frei told SPIEGEL.
"Despite the dramatic development in the electricity market, the last remaining nuclear power plants are to be shut down in winter," said the CDU politician.
"Instead of continuing to operate these three plants and immediately ordering new fuel rods, the federal government is just working on the symptoms of the crisis." Here, "the Greens had obviously prevailed," he said.
The same applies to the cap on biomass plants.
“But without strengthening the supply side, we won't survive the crisis properly,” says Frei.
Frei also made out a lot of the subjunctive in the decision paper - "especially with the 9-euro ticket and the electricity price cap, which is subject to numerous reservations".
It is unclear, for example, how the company's excess profits are to be skimmed off.
more on the subject
Poker about the relief package: A completely normal coalition A commentary by Christoph Hickmann
A traffic light package worth billions: This is how the citizens should be relieved
Package worth billions: This is how citizens and companies should get through the crisis
Dietmar Bartsch
, leader of the Left Party parliamentary group, described the package as "disappointing in many ways".
Germany is not well prepared for the winter, Bartsch told T-Online.
»The plans will not prevent the avalanche of poverty that could roll over Germany in winter.«
According to a statement, AfD party leader
Tino Chrupalla
criticized the planned measures as “expensive symptom control”.
All relief measures are only short-term solutions as long as the causes of the price explosion are not addressed.
A targeted reduction in consumption taxes on food and energy and the abolition of the CO2 tax are needed.
slu/flo/dpa
