"Outrageous": Söder Minister names Bavaria's costs for Lindner's relief package - and is considering resistance

Created: 04/26/2022, 11:50 am

By: Linus Prien

The federal government's planned relief package was criticized by the Union.

Bavaria's finance minister, Albert Füracker, criticized the states' lack of organizational competence.

Munich – More than one billion euros: This is how much the planned relief package of the traffic light coalition in Bavaria will cost, according to Markus Söder, finance minister Albert Füracker (CSU).

"The federal government doesn't even want to pay half of every euro of the relief package out of its own pocket: the states should pay 42.5 percent, the municipalities 15 percent," said the CSU politician to the

.

This had not been coordinated with the federal states in advance.

CSU minister criticizes traffic light relief package: "Simply outrageous"

Füracker advocates relieving the burden on citizens in the face of inflation and rising energy prices.

However, he criticized the actions of the federal government.

The relief package, consisting of a flat-rate energy price and a family allowance, is neither accurate nor efficient.

The federal states are also responsible for implementation, which leads to a great deal of administrative work.

At the same time, the federal states are largely excluded from participation.

“The legislative procedure chosen for the relief package massively restricts the competences of the federal states.

In view of the costs and effort to be faced by the federal states, this is simply outrageous," said Füracker.

"If the federal government does not compensate for the costs of the states, we must seriously consider calling the mediation committee."

Prime Minister Söder: "The traffic light package falls short of expectations"

Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder criticized the traffic light plans in March as insufficient.

He wrote on Twitter at the time: "The traffic light package falls short of expectations - too little, too complicated, only for a short time and no real relief for the economy".

Instead, Söder advocated a reduction in VAT in order to effectively curb the rise in energy prices.

In addition, the CSU politician campaigned for the relief package to last longer: "The crisis is taking longer".

He described it as disappointing that the extension of the service life of German nuclear power plants had not been discussed.

According to a survey, there is currently a majority of the population in Bavaria for longer nuclear power plant runtimes.

Relief package: Union criticizes the lack of consideration for pensioners

There was also criticism from the Union in the federal government.

CDU politicians campaigned for changes to the planned energy relief package in favor of pensioners.

The parliamentary manager of the Union faction, Thorsten Frei, spoke to the

of a "major mistake by the government to leave the pensioners alone with the rapidly increasing energy costs".

He wanted to “correct this in the parliamentary procedure”.

CDU party leader Andreas Jung told the newspaper that the traffic light wanted to "relieve certain groups" with its relief package, but was forgetting pensioners, students and companies.