"Not our ideal coalition": Lindner on citizen income problems and the proximity to the Union

Created: 01/12/2022 09:27

By: Jens Kiffmeier, Mark Stoffers

Finance Minister Christian Lindner is not working with his "desired solution" - but in a traffic light coalition.

© Political Moments/Imago

FDP boss Lindner talks to us about the citizen money decision and the proximity to the Union.

He also makes it clear that the current coalition is not the ideal solution.

Berlin/Munich - Unusual alliance: The Union demands massive corrections in the policy of the traffic light federal government - and finds an ally in the FDP.

What is that?

shadow government?

Restart for a bourgeois middle?

Or just something in common?

Questions to Christian Lindner (43), the FDP leader and Federal Minister of Finance.

The Union has tattered the citizens' money and temporarily blocked it.

Reform succeeded anyway?

Christian Lindner:

Yes.

The Mediation Committee has actually made the citizens' income better.

Were you happy that the opposition forced your coalition partners to compromise?

Lindner:

What was important to us has been preserved: the priority of qualification and the better earning opportunities for the recipients of the citizen's income.

It is incomprehensible that a trainee who earns maybe 800 euros as a training allowance has to give most of the money to the state because she lives in a family that has received Hartz IV.

When it comes to basic income, a trainee with 800 euros in training allowance now has a good 600 euros.

FDP and the secret allies: Yellow-black shadow government at the federal level?

And what did the Treasury leave before?

Lindner:

The Ministry of Finance is not responsible, but the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs.

In any case, only a good 240 euros remained.

But that's corrected now.

That was my special concern.

Achievement must be worthwhile.

Anyone who is diligent, who works, must also have an advantage from it.

And the Union wanted clarification on the question of sanctions.

It's no secret: I found and still think these clarifications are correct, because there must be an obligation to cooperate.

We stand in solidarity with people who are in need.

But solidarity should only be used for as long and to the extent that it is really needed.

Solidarity is not a one-way street.

The CDU is blocking and giving the FDP more power in the three-way alliance for bourgeois content - will we continue to be dealing with a yellow-black shadow government in the future?

Lindner:

No, that's a misperception.

Citizens' income, as passed by the coalition, was already good and right.

Because the Union's reproach that there was no longer an obligation to cooperate was completely unfounded.

Which is why I only spoke about clarifications with regard to the result of the Mediation Committee.

Meanwhile, the coalition also disagrees on excess profit tax, which the FDP initially blocked.

Is the design by Lindner and Co. too "soft"?

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“Party political point victories”?

What Lindner is supposedly really about

What else do the partners in the FDP have to adjust to?

Lindner:

I'm not interested in party-political point victories.

We want Germany to get through the crises well.

We also have liberal modernization projects that we want to implement.

The FDP plays a role in the government as a shaper who makes progress possible.

We make sure that the country stays in the middle.

Does that mean you don't regret joining the three-way alliance after a year?

Lindner:

It wasn't the coalition we wanted.

It is also a challenge every day.

But we don't shy away from responsibility.

It's about our country.

Meanwhile, Germany is leaving the International Hunting Council.

The FDP sees the Greens going it alone and criticizes the “neo-colonial policies of German bureaucrats”.