Relief package trouble: Now the countries want to "speak urgently" - and Kühnert is already breaking the pact of silence

Created: 06/09/2022 05:39

By: Victoria Krumbeck

The third relief package has been criticized by the federal states and the opposition.

The country leaders are now calling for talks.

Munich/Berlin - After a long wait, the federal government has finally decided on the relief package.

The measures will cost around 65 billion euros.

The traffic light coalition is satisfied.

However, the new relief is also met with new criticism and questions: the federal states urgently want to talk about financing – and the measures are not specific enough for the opposition.

The first lines of conflict between the coalition partners are already apparent the day after the package is presented.

Relief package: country leaders call for talks on financing

The third relief package had made the traffic light optimistic.

The decisive factor is the result "and I think that's convincing," said Federal Minister of Finance and FDP leader Christian Lindner on Sunday evening in the ARD "Tagesthemen".

"We will not leave anyone alone," affirmed Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD).

Not all political protagonists in the country share this conviction of the traffic light men.

Sharp criticism comes from North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Württemberg, for example.

The heads of government Hendrik Wüst (CDU) and Winfried Kretschmann (Greens) called for an early prime ministerial conference with Chancellor Scholz.

The relief package will have a massive impact on state budgets, Kretschmann told the German Press Agency (dpa) on Sunday.

That is why the states urgently need to talk to the federal government about this.

Bavaria's state government has meanwhile threatened to boycott the financing of the new 49-euro ticket.

Hendrik Wüst (l), Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia and Jens Spahn, CDU (r).

© Marius Becker/dpa

Wüst, currently chairman of the Prime Ministers' Conference, told the newspapers of the Bayern media group on Monday: "If the states are to pay, they must also be able to make decisions." There are still many open questions.

"This should be discussed very promptly at a Prime Minister's conference with the Federal Chancellor."

Opposition criticizes relief package as "vague and incomplete"

Further criticism comes from the ranks of the CDU.

The measures are important, but "too little and too little focused," explained Jens Spahn (CDU) in the "Morgenmagazin".

“I would rather have 1,000 or 2,000 euros for people with low and medium incomes than 300 euros again for all pensioners.

So it's not particularly targeted," Spahn continued.

The CDU chairman Friedrich Merz also criticized the government's relief package in the ARD summer interview.

CSU regional group chief Alexander Dobrindt said in turn that the traffic light compromise was "unspecific, incomplete and insufficient".

"Necessary measures against the energy price explosion remain unresolved," he explained to the dpa.

He missed further course setting.

There is "no decision to continue operating the nuclear power plants, no decision to reduce gas prices, no decision to stop the gas levy, no clarity on how to reduce energy costs, neither at the pump nor for gas nor for electricity".

"Many people will not get through the winter with a one-off payment of 300 euros," said the co-chair of the left, Janine Wissler, on Deutschlandfunk.

People who receive basic security will get nothing this year.

"You stay on the level that you fight symptoms instead of tackling the causes," Wissler continues.

Third relief package: Kühnert portrays the FDP as a brakewoman

Meanwhile, SPD Secretary General Kühnert hinted on the RTL program "Stern TV am Sonntag" that more far-reaching measures in the federal government's relief package were not possible due to the resistance of the FDP.

He himself was in favor of a "very just society," he said - and added: "However, I have to work with the majorities that are there."

When asked why Germany didn't take Spain as an example and introduce a profit tax directly, which could be used to finance free local transport, for example, Kühnert replied: "If I may put it casually: If you want to have the question answered, why If we don't do it immediately like in Spain, then you should have invited the FDP General Secretary today."

Scholz in particular had repeatedly emphasized that the traffic light had worked on the package “very confidentially”.

Apparently, there was a crisis shortly after the plans, which had been kept secret for a long time, were presented.