State parliament launches crisis aid, criticism of Wüst

Created: 2022-12-20Updated: 2022-12-20 4:33 p.m

North Rhine-Westphalia Deputy Prime Minister Mona Neubaur and Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst.

© Henning Kaiser/dpa

For months, the black-green state government in North Rhine-Westphalia ruled with a steady hand.

But in the supreme discipline of budgeting, there was a lot of jerking.

Shortly before Christmas, a rescue package for people and companies is on its way.

Prime Minister Wüst had to listen to criticism.

Düsseldorf – The North Rhine-Westphalian state parliament has approved the first budget of the new black-green coalition and has launched crisis aid worth billions for the needy and companies.

Unfazed by massive criticism of short-term financial policy U-turns, the majority of the CDU and Greens also decided on Tuesday to declare a financial emergency for 2023 and thus relax the debt brake.

The state parliament will finally vote on the planned debt-financed “crisis management special fund” of up to five billion euros and the first tranche of 1.6 billion euros in a special session on Wednesday.

However, the first aid to cushion the consequences of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine will only flow at the beginning of 2023 and not this year as planned.

Wasted a “fair-weather prime minister”?

The opposition used the debate for a general settlement with the black-green coalition that has been in office since the summer and primarily targeted Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU).

The FDP, former coalition partner of the CDU, accused the state government of a zigzag course and unreliability in the crisis aid and threatened a constitutional complaint.

FDP parliamentary group leader Henning Höne called Wüst a "fair-weather prime minister" who "can only do freestyle, but no obligation".

Only photo ops were not enough to govern.

"If it goes into the engine room, back off."

The resolution of a financial emergency is inadequate, the associated softening of the debt brake is on a shaky foundation, and the planned special fund for crisis management comes from debt.

The government has made no effort to look for potential savings in the regular budget.

Wüst demonstratively remains calm

Wüst justified the billion-euro special fund with financial uncertainties in view of the ongoing Ukraine war.

No one can say how long the war will last and how many people will flee.

It is also unclear how tax revenue will develop in the coming year and whether the economy will recover.

"We must now take precautions for these imponderables," said Wüst.

“That is the most important thing: getting people through this crisis well,” said the CDU politician.

"No one can say how much the crisis will worsen." Wüst took the massive criticism from the state audit office, among others, calmly.

The state government "doesn't get a kick out of the crown if we listen to the advice of experts," he said.

SPD opposition leader Thomas Kutschaty accused Wüst of lacking competence in crisis management.

"The government declares the emergency - and the Prime Minister disappears." The only thing you get from Wüst at any time are "beautiful pictures".

"You are an Insta president, but not a prime minister," said Kuchaty, referring to the popular social media platform Instagram.

"Not a cent will reach people, clubs or municipalities this year," said the SPD parliamentary group leader.

"It's a mess." The first tranche from the special fund in the amount of 1.6 billion is "a sham".

It contains funds for IT security at universities or millions for a siren funding program.

This means that no energy bills are paid during the crisis and no job is secured.

The SPD suspected that the state government also wanted to use the aid package to finance its own desired black-green projects.

What should be paid for with the 1.6 billion

From the aid package decided by the cabinet just a few days ago, 150 million euros are earmarked for poverty reduction, for example for food banks.

100 million euros are planned for a special construction program for climate-efficient housing promotion in NRW and 160 million for an investment program for energy and heating transition.

The bad economic situation threatens to hinder investments in renewable energies, it was said as a reason.

90 million euros flow into a funding program for low-emission mobility.

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60 million are planned to secure child day care offers.

200 million are planned to compensate for increases in energy costs for local public transport.

With 100 million, particular hardships from rising electricity and gas prices in the corporate sector are to be cushioned.

Record budget 2023 passed

The state parliament also passed the record budget with a volume of 94.7 billion euros on Tuesday.

Some items in the budget: NRW is budgeting 560 million euros for the “Germany” ticket, and 836 million euros to cushion additional burdens on housing benefit recipients.

Half of the money should come from the federal government.

The state will spend 100 million euros in 2023 on the gradual adjustment of teachers' salaries.

In addition, 3,000 new police officers are to be hired in 2023.

The budget process was highly controversial.

Initially, the CDU and the Greens had planned a budget volume of even more than 100 billion euros because they wanted to transfer funds from the Corona rescue package, which expires at the end of the year, to the regular budget.

This was intended to pay aid in the energy price crisis.

The Court of Auditors had criticized this as unconstitutional.

An originally planned supplementary budget for 2022 black and green was then withdrawn again at short notice on Monday.

The reason: Surprisingly, according to Finance Minister Marcus Optendrenk, additional tax revenue of around 1.2 billion euros emerged.

CDU parliamentary group leader Thorsten Schick admitted that the budget process was not "from a single source" and that he too would have wished for it differently.

"No one can deny that we live in special times," he said.

"We can not plan for a long time." dpa