Finance Minister Olaf Scholz poses as a hands-on political manager in the corona pandemic.
But the billions of euros in aid reach the companies only slowly.
Now the criticism is growing.
In the fight against the
corona
pandemic, the federal government has promised billions in aid for ailing companies.
But the process is considered
bureaucratic
, and payments are often a long time coming.
Displeasure is growing in the economy
.
Federal Finance Minister
Olaf Scholz in
particular is
now being criticized.
Munich - When it comes to PR with oomph, Federal Finance Minister
Olaf Scholz
* (
SPD
)
lets it
crash.
In the fight against the economic consequences of the
Corona
* pandemic, the SPD
candidate for Chancellor announced
publicly in the spring, "the
bazooka
" had been pulled out.
A good three quarters of a year later, there is not much left of the armed rhetoric of departure.
“
Olaf Scholz's
bazooka
is currently turning into a children's birthday gun that doesn't bang, but whistles,” said the deputy head of the FDP parliamentary group,
Alexander Lambsdorff
, on
on Tuesday
.
The bazooka only had an impact “in the capital's media, but not in companies”.
The #Bazooka by @OlafScholz is currently becoming a children's birthday gun that does not make #Wumms, but #Piffpaff.
It is still making an impact in the media in the capital, but not in companies in critical financial situations across the country.
#November Aids https://t.co/rg7QA9CGoj
- Alexander Lambsdorff (@Lambsdorff) January 12, 2021
One sees it similarly in the business associations.
“The aid just doesn't get through to our companies.
The application is far too bureaucratic, ”said the President of German Crafts,
Hans Peter Wollseifer
, to the“ Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger ”.
HDE: The finance minister's bazooka remains a bummer
The trade is also hard hit with Scholz.
"The finance minister's bazooka has so far been a huge blow for the retail trade," said the general manager of the trade association,
Stefan Genth,
on Tuesday to
Merkur.de *
.
The application criteria are "much too high in detail and also a faulty design that ignores practice," criticized Genth.
Every day now counts when fighting the pandemic.
For many businesses in the stationary retail trade, the situation is now "dramatic".
According to a recent
HDE
survey, every second retailer affected by the lockdown fears that they will not survive the current year without further government aid.
For many retail companies and entire city centers, 2021 threatens to become “a year of disaster,” warned Genth.
Nationwide, 50,000 shops with a total of around 250,000 employees are threatened in their existence.
Corona aid: So far, barely ten percent of the aid has been given
It cannot be due to a lack of funds.
The federal government has made available a total of 30 billion euros for November and December to combat the
Corona
exitus.
But so far
only 1.2 billion euros have been paid out
for the
November
aid.
The IT of the federal government was simply not able to keep up with the programming, criticized the economic policy spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group,
Reinhard Houben
.
A change in the application conditions for November and December aid is causing new problems.
After that, bridging aid is only available if a company has made a loss, for example because it has very high fixed costs to cope with.
Previously, it was sufficient if a company had to cope with a decline in sales when applying.
With the change, the federal government reacted to a corresponding review of state aid by the EU Commission.
Changed Corona aid: In the worst case, companies now have to pay back money
This can have dire consequences for companies.
Especially for small and medium-sized companies, the aid could now turn out to be significantly smaller than expected.
In the worst case - tax advisors warn - companies are now even threatened with repayments.
* Merkur.de is part of the Ippen-Digital network.
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