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Left-wing politician Pellmann: "People should fight back"
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Jan Woitas / dpa
The rising energy prices in connection with the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine will be felt by citizens throughout Germany.
However, the Leipzig left-wing politician Sören Pellmann sees the people in the eastern German states as particularly affected.
The planned gas levy, which consumers are supposed to use to support the major gas importers in the current crisis, would hit it even harder.
The gas surcharge is a "blow against the East" and "the sharpest social cut for citizens since the Hartz reforms of the 2000s," said Pellmann in Berlin.
He sits in the Bundestag as a member of parliament for the Leipzig II constituency and is the Eastern Commissioner for the left-wing parliamentary group in the Bundestag.
The surcharge is intended to benefit gas suppliers who have to buy a replacement for the missing, cheaper gas volumes from Russia at high prices.
The height is to be announced on Monday.
The surcharge will apply from the beginning of October, when consumers will also share in the additional costs.
According to Pellmann, the east is particularly vulnerable
According to Pellmann, the east is particularly vulnerable to exploding energy prices because of lower incomes and reserves.
"For hundreds of thousands of East Germans, the gas levy is a slide into an existential crisis," said Pellmann.
“People should fight back.
We need new Monday demonstrations in the East like we did against Hartz IV.«
The protests that took place during the Peaceful Revolution in the GDR are known as the Monday demonstrations.
From the fall of 1989, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in Leipzig, among other places, every Monday.
They demanded an end to the SED rule and a democratic reorganization.
»Monday demonstration« as a polarizing term
From 2004 there were also “Monday demonstrations” throughout Germany against Agenda 2010, which was decided by the SPD-led government at the time and included far-reaching state cuts in social services.
However, the name was already controversial at the time because of the reference to the GDR protests.
Pellmann had recently run unsuccessfully for the party chairmanship of the left.
After his defeat, he criticized the leadership of Janine Wissler and Martin Schirdewan and complained that there was no »departure« even under the new top duo.
Among other things, he made headlines with a call for a quota for East Germans in management positions in companies.
fek/dpa
