The lockdown has been extended, restaurants and many shops remain closed.
The German state has already paid them billions in aid - and according to the finance minister, there is still room for improvement.
The lockdown was extended on Tuesday by the federal and state governments to
January 31
.
The state must therefore continue to provide horrific sums of
aid
.
But
finance minister Olaf Scholz's
shoe is
apparently elsewhere.
Berlin - "The money will flow from Tuesday," said Economics Minister
Peter Altmaier (CDU)
.
Companies affected
by the
lockdown
and the self-employed can now again make advance payments for
state economic aid *
receive.
For companies there is up to 50,000 euros, for solo self-employed a maximum of 5,000 euros.
Due to the
closings
in November,
more than 227,500 applications were submitted to
the
Ministry of Economic Affairs
and discounts of
983 million euros were
paid.
Since the beginning of the Corona crisis in March, the state has even
approved
more than
71 billion euros in aid
.
While
Altmaier
curbing measures against the
coronavirus
describes as "strength", assured
Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD)
: "The state will help, as long as it will be necessary." The federal government calculate per month with
lockdown cost
of about
eleven billion euros
explained
Scholz
recently told the
Funke media group
.
In
the next year,
39.5 billion euros
would be available for economic aid alone - recipients of the November and December
aid
were mainly closed businesses in the
gastronomy, cultural and leisure
sectors
.
Video: What effect will the Corona aid packages have on the economy in 2021?
Vice-Chancellor Olaf Scholz: "We can hold out for a long time"
The new
bridging aid III
should
cover
up to 90 percent of the fixed costs of companies in
lockdown
and initially affect the period from
January to the end of June 2021
.
“A lot of money,” says
Scholz
, but he is confident.
"Financially we can
hold out
the
lockdown
for a long time, we have taken precautions," he emphasized again in the
ARD morning magazine
- after the federal and state governments decided on Tuesday evening to
extend the lockdown to January 31
.
Germany
did well, said
Scholz
.
Work is being carried out in factories and many offices so that there is “no complete standstill”.
Also because
Germany had
less than
60 percent national debt
at the
end of the year
before
last
, you can now take out the loans, explained
Scholz
.
After the
financial crisis in 2008
, the debt was even more than
80 percent of the gross domestic product
.
Now, according to current calculations, “even if it gets very bad” one will not be “far” over 70 and “get down again quickly”.
What is good for
health
is not always economical for companies, summarized
Scholz
.
The question now is whether and how we can protect citizens well.
That is a very serious question.
We need to make sure that enough #vaccine is produced and procured.
It is good that a cabinet committee is meeting today to discuss this.
https://t.co/JnVjizNrIy
- Olaf Scholz (@OlafScholz) January 6, 2021
Even if, from the perspective of the
SPD chancellor candidate
, Germany
can financially afford
the measures in the fight against the
corona pandemic
, it seems essential for him to make progress elsewhere.
In an interview with
ARD
,
Scholz
emphasized
that the most important thing now is to ensure that
enough
vaccine is
produced
in
Germany
and
Europe
- and that it is available.
A meeting of the new cabinet committee "Vaccination" is planned for Wednesday.
One now has to see where one can help
to produce
vaccine
sufficiently quickly.
The new working group, which now consists of
Altmaier
,
Scholz,
the head of the Federal Chancellery,
Helge Braun
(CDU) and
Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU)
, was an internal government debate about
Spahn's vaccination strategy *
preceded.
Chancellor Angela Merkel *
then set up the working group and will now chair it.
Video: Scholz presents a catalog of questions - SPD attacks Spahn for vaccination planning
Scholz
had
Spahn
recently submitted a four-page questionnaire, other
Social Democrats
criticized him in the social networks also keen for the "seed chaos". Opposite the
ARD
had
Scholz
but the accusation, the
SPD
do for campaign purposes mood against the
Minister of Health *
. "It is a very serious matter", said
Scholz
, "without transparent answers to all of these questions, I believe we will not make any progress".
(cos / dpa) * Merkur.de is part of the Ippen-Digital network.
