Wüst: The federal government shows little willingness to compromise

Created: 04/10/2022 22:03

Hendrik Wüst (CDU, l), Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, and Stephan Weil (SPD), Prime Minister of Lower Saxony.

© Britta Pedersen/dpa

North Rhine-Westphalia's Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) sharply criticized the federal government after talks between the federal and state governments.

"Despite the constructive attitude of the federal states, the federal government has shown little willingness to compromise on very important issues today," said Wüst after the consultations with the chancellor and the prime ministers of the federal states on Tuesday in Berlin.

Berlin - "We've only made a few steps forward today and we're still a long way from reaching our goal." From the point of view of many countries, this is simply not enough.

According to Wüst, the federal states went into these talks “constructively and with an outstretched hand”.

Chancellor Scholz had previously said that, among other things, no consensus had yet been reached between the federal and state governments on how to distribute the costs of relieving the burden on citizens and companies in view of the high energy prices.

According to him, the concrete design of the planned electricity and gas price brake is still being discussed.

The federal government wants to protect consumers and companies from high energy prices due to the Ukraine war with a package of measures worth up to 200 billion euros.

Gas and electricity prices should be capped.

There should be liquidity and equity support for companies.

Details are still open.

The aid is to be financed through loans.

The consultations also included a solution to replace the 9-euro ticket for local and regional transport that expired at the end of August.

dpa