Cloister of the traffic light coalition: In addition to the Ukraine conflict and Corona, it is also about minimum wage and children

Created: 2022-01-21 04:51

By: Marcus Giebel

Put your heads together: Robert Habeck, Olaf Scholz and Christian Lindner (from left) hold a cabinet retreat with the entire federal government.

© OMER MESSINGER/afp

The Russian saber-rattling and the next wave of corona are probably robbing the federal government of some sleep.

At the cabinet meeting, other topics are also on the agenda.

• The governing parties meet in Berlin for the cabinet retreat.

• In addition to the Ukraine conflict and the Corona measures, the minimum wage and basic child security should also be discussed.

• This news ticker is updated regularly.

Munich – The SPD-led traffic light coalition has now been in office for around a month and a half.

The cabinet, led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz, has some serious problems ahead.

First and foremost, of course, the corona pandemic, which is about to enter its third year.

But of course - more topical than ever - the Ukraine conflict with the imminent invasion of Russia.

At the annual meeting, however, the still young government also wants to tackle issues that are also burning under the fingernails, but are currently overshadowed.

SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich named socio-political projects such as increasing the minimum wage and introducing basic child security.

It is also about shaping the ecological transformation in a social way.

Traffic light retreat: climate protection and minimum wage are also on the agenda

Of course, a lot of time will also have to be allocated to climate protection.

Here, for example, proposals are to be discussed on how bureaucratic hurdles for the expansion of renewable energies can be removed and procedures streamlined.

The structure of the minimum wage is also being debated.

This is to be raised to twelve euros.

Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) plans to present a draft law shortly.

With regard to a possible vaccination requirement, Mützenich referred to discussions according to which this could apply from a certain age limit.

The FDP is struggling with a requirement, the government now wants to move forward through a parliamentary procedure with group applications.

Thus, the design of the regulation would not be solely in the hands of red-green-yellow.

Video: No more entitlement to continued salary payments without a booster?

Ukraine conflict with Russia: stop Nord Stream 2 or even supply weapons?

In view of the Russian muscle flexing on the Ukrainian border, the Greens could be comfortable with threatening to stop the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.

What the SPD shies away from, however, is that they don't want to exploit the German-Russian project.

For its part, the FDP should consider whether an exception to the still fresh coalition agreement could be made for arms deliveries to Ukraine.

Moscow could also be stopped in this way.

Above all, Mützenich relies on diplomacy, but also emphasized with regard to the negotiations: "There are two to the dialogue format."

Meanwhile, the President of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), Siegfried Russwurm, urged the government in the

to significantly speed up the processing of administrative, planning and approval procedures.

The current plans are not ambitious enough.

The consultations of the three parties began on Thursday in Berlin.