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Towers of the heating system of the Bremen gas producer swb: With the advance, the Bremen left clearly positions itself against the previous plans from Berlin
Photo: Martin Elsen / ZB / euroluftbild.de / picture alliance
The gas price is rising – without the traffic light government having presented a concrete plan to protect low-income families from the costs in particular.
The left in Bremen now wants to react on its own with a regional gas price cap.
This emerges from an internal strategy paper that is available to SPIEGEL.
The left faction calculated how much money the city would have to raise to absorb the additional costs for all households.
In the state of Bremen, just over 62 percent of households heat with gas, consuming an average of 2.5 terawatt hours of gas per year.
The party's paper runs through various relief models, depending on the cap, the costs for the city's budget would be between 43 and 60 million euros.
"That would be a lot, but it would also be feasible," says Nelson Janssen, chairman of the left-wing faction in Bremen's parliament.
»During the corona pandemic, we had taken on 1.2 billion euros in new debt in an emergency.
Even now we have an emergency again, and the costs are significantly lower.«
"You can't save against such cost explosions"
With the advance, the Bremen Left clearly positions itself against the previous plans from Berlin, in fact the bill is probably more of a provocation than a strategy paper.
Less than a week ago, Economics and Climate Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) announced the amount of the gas levy: 2.419 cents per kilowatt hour more will come to household customers and companies from October 1st.
There was a great deal of groaning, and shortly afterwards Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) surprised everyone by announcing that he wanted to reduce VAT on the entire gas price as compensation: from 19 to 7 percent.
Janßen considers compensation via VAT to be grossly unsocial and sees too much bureaucracy.
Citizens would first be burdened and then partially relieved.
But the fundamental price increase remains, and households with low incomes in particular will continue to be hit extremely hard.
"Households would have to reduce their consumption by a third to compensate for the price increase," says the strategy paper of the Bremen left - "you can't save against such cost explosions".
The Bremen comrades are not alone in their initiative.
Left boss Janine Wissler also spoke out in favor of an electricity and gas price cap and an excess profit tax last week, and her co-chairman Martin Schwartewan also campaigned for the cap.
He criticized Scholz's VAT reduction as primarily "FDP-compatible".
There are also supporters of the SPD and the Greens.
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania's Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig (SPD) and Saxony's Economics Minister Martin Dulig (SPD) both campaigned in their federal states for the gas price cap at the weekend, Green Party politician Rasmus Andresen called the cap the "better option" in SPIEGEL as opposed to the decision to reduce the gas price VAT on gas.
The CDU politician Jens Spahn also spoke out in an interview with the "world" for a cap.
In the EU, they are already ahead in several countries.
Nine of the 27 EU countries introduced a gas price cap, including Portugal and Spain in April after tough wrangling with Brussels.
The Bremen left would also like to see the traffic light introduce a nationwide gas cap.
"We expect the federal government to take action and also think about the social flank when gas prices rise." So far, however, "especially with a view to the FDP," he says he has doubts as to whether the traffic light would really introduce the gas price cap.
»If necessary, we will take action ourselves in Bremen.«
In the Hanseatic city, the left governs together with the SPD and the Greens, but so far they have been alone in their initiative.
From the Bremen SPD it is said that no talks have been held in this direction so far, but that the model is open to it.
The jacuzzi remains unsubsidised
Last week, the city had already decided on an aid fund for social and economic compensation, so far invested at 10 million euros.
Should the gas price cap become part of this fund, as desired by the left, it would have to be increased considerably.
But even if the left has not yet discussed the gas price cap with its two coalition partners, Janssen is confident that the SPD and the Greens would go along with it.
»We have already found a common way with the financial aid in the corona crisis.«
The advantage of a cap: the state only sets an upper limit for the gas price that private households have to pay.
Low-income households are thus much better protected against rising costs than just by the lower value added tax.
Wealthier households will also be relieved more, but according to the parliamentary group leader Janßen, "the crisis is affecting the population across the board, so we also need relief on a broad basis".
The Bremen left either imagines a model that freezes the price of gas.
The city takes over the price increases that the supplier would have to absorb.
Another model provides for a subsidized basic quota.
The city would absorb the price increases within the basic quota - but those who consume significantly more have to bear the higher costs themselves.
Janssen sees the last model in particular as a guarantee against waste.
Anyone who absolutely wants to heat the whirlpool in winter will not be caught in this way.
"High earners are still responsible for their own luxury costs," says Janssen.