Special MPK: States and Union increase pressure on Chancellor – new date due to Scholz’s corona infection

Created: 09/27/2022, 16:12

By: Bedrettin Bölükbasi

Relief should help citizens amid rising prices.

Scholz and country heads now want to discuss the third package.

Munich/Berlin - The Ukraine war not only leads to political discussions, but also to problems of an economic nature. In Germany, too, citizens have to complain about higher prices.

The price increases are particularly tough in the energy sector.

The federal government wants to help with relief.

Two packages have already been passed, and a third package of measures is to be added.

Before the new package is passed, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) wants to discuss the planned measures with the prime ministers of the federal states.

The special MPK was originally scheduled for Wednesday (October 28).

However, due to Scholz's corona infection, the meeting will be postponed by a week to October 4th.

This was announced by the MPK chairman and NRW Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) on Twitter.

However, this does not change the dynamics of the debate.

She's still hot-tempered.

In the run-up to the meeting, the countries in the traffic light coalition accuse them of having decided that the countries should contribute billions to the costs without consulting them.

Special MPK between Scholz and country heads - consultations on the third relief package

The country heads are now increasing the pressure before the meeting with Scholz.

In uncertain times, people needed “security as soon as possible,” said Bremen’s Prime Minister Andreas Bovenschulte (SPD) in the newspaper

.

He called for quick decisions.

"The energy price cap must come now." There is already a threat of "deep cuts in our economy and jobs are at risk due to the reluctance to buy and invest," warned the Bremen head of government.

Lower Saxony's Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD) expects "no easy talks" for the meeting.

He stressed that there were some indications that the discussion would have to be continued beyond the forthcoming federal-state talks.

For areas such as business, hospitals, public utilities and public transport, he called for more relief.

The previous support measures were not sufficient.

Special MPK on relief: countries put pressure on Scholz and call for further measures

Hamburg's Prime Minister Peter Tschentscher (SPD) considers suspending the debt brake to finance the measures "well justified in view of the situation".

Tschentscher also called on his colleagues to "support the measures of the third relief package in the Federal Council".

However, an agreement on the distribution of costs is a prerequisite for this support.

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Many countries would be "overwhelmed because additional burdens from the reception of refugees or a follow-up regulation for the nine-euro ticket are added," he said.

Financial compensatory measures by the federal government could start at these points.

Thuringia's Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow (left) also spoke and called on the federal government to decide on an energy price cap for Germany: "The electricity prices must fall significantly and be based on the production costs." The fuel prices would have to be synchronized with the crude oil prices again.

In addition, the federal government must "finally suspend the debt brake," emphasized the left-wing politician.

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Special MPK: Union shoots against traffic lights in advance - "completely dubious action"

The Union does not exactly place much hope in the special MPK between Chancellor Scholz and the state leaders.

A significant result is not expected.

The parliamentary director of the Union faction in the Bundestag, Thorsten Frei (CDU), and CSU state group leader Alexander Dobrindt said on Tuesday (September 27) that they expected that the mediation committee of the federal and state governments would have to put together an overall package.

With a view to the controversial gas levy originally proposed by Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens), Frei accused the traffic light government of getting lost and wasting time.

For months, the federal government has been rejecting the Union's proposals to expand supply by keeping nuclear power plants running.

With a view to the debate about easing the debt brake, Frei emphasized that his parliamentary group was opposed to a corresponding change in the Basic Law anyway.

With a view to the federal-state consultations, Dobrindt spoke of a “completely dubious approach” to the traffic light.

For example, the templates for the meeting did not contain any tableau of numbers.

The traffic light makes suggestions for distributing the costs, but does not present any solutions.

It is disputed in the coalition whether the debt brake anchored in the Basic Law will be observed again in the coming year.

The debt brake had been suspended due to the corona pandemic.

If the gas levy is overturned, it is unclear where the money will come from to support gas importers.

A gas price brake is also under discussion.