Increasingly skeptical tones after coalition budget agreement
The coalition resolutions provide for additional burdens to close budget gaps worth billions, including a higher CO2 price and an increase in grid fees for electricity. In addition, subsidy programs will be eliminated or reduced. In order to be able to restructure the railroad despite tight budgets, the sale of company shareholdings is planned.
"The solution planned by the traffic light coalition has a severe social imbalance," said the chairman of the Verdi trade union, Frank Werneke, to the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper. "The increase in the CO2 price affects all citizens - especially those with lower incomes," he criticized.
Werneke and the VdK social association urged that the climate money be paid out to citizens as compensation. "Only the increase in the CO2 price is fatal and would be anti-social without climate money," VdK President Verena Bentele told the Düsseldorf newspaper Rheinische Post. She also criticized the elimination of the citizen's bonus for further education.
Veronika Grimm, an economist, also called for the introduction of the climate money. "That would be a very important measure to create acceptance for climate protection," she told TV station Welt. People on low incomes in particular would benefit from this. With climate money, however, politicians could even "increase prices even more", Grimm continued.
"Dramatic cuts" in humanitarian aid were criticized by Michael Herbst, Chairman of the Board of the Association for Development Policy and Humanitarian Aid (VENRO). "There is a threat of historically unprecedented cuts in international cooperation," Herbst said in Berlin, referring to a planned reduction of 930 million euros in the development budget and 400 million euros in humanitarian aid funds, which are allocated to the Federal Foreign Office, among others.
"The proposals of the traffic light coalition have thrown the entire agricultural sector into turmoil," said the President of the German Farmers' Association, Joachim Rukwied, in the Rheinische Post newspaper. He announced protests against the removal of concessions for agricultural diesel and vehicle tax. "Too much is too much," said Rukwied, calling for the plans to be withdrawn.
"Instead of suspending the debt brake and drawing on the high assets, the traffic light wants to sell off the holdings in the post office and Telekom," said Left Party leader Janine Wissler, criticizing the planned sale of federal holdings. Speaking to the AFP news agency, she accused Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) of "trickery" because Deutsche Bahn was supposed to cover part of the costs of restructuring its ailing rail network itself by selling its logistics subsidiary Schenker.
Representatives of the Ampel party tried to counter these fears. Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) assured that, despite a reduction in the federal subsidy to the pension funds, there would be neither increases in contributions nor risks to the current pension level "in the short and medium term". The latter is to be secured with the government's pension package planned for early 2024, Heil told Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland.
SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert ruled out cuts to climate protection despite some cuts to funding programs. "Climate protection is legally binding," he said on ZDF television. However, Kühnert also conceded that the "traffic light" government would "have to prioritize more", for example in the promotion of building refurbishment. However, the climate protection initiative Fridays for Future called for a greater reduction in climate-damaging subsidies.
FDP financial politician Frank Schäffler opposed a new exception to the debt brake to finance aid for the 2021 flood disaster in the Ahr valley and elsewhere. He called for the aid to be financed from the regular budget.
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- Verena Bentele, the VdK president, expressed her concerns about the increase in the CO2 price and its impact on lower-income citizens to the Rheinische Post.
- The chairman of the United Services Union, Frank Werneke, stated his skepticism towards the coalition's solutions to budget gaps in the Augsburger General.
- In response to the coalition's agreement, Werneke and the VdK urged for climate money to be distributed as compensation to citizens to mitigate the impact of the CO2 price increase.
- The auctioning of shares in the post office and Telekom to raise funds was criticized by Left Party leader Janine Wissler as a "trick" by Finance Minister Christian Lindner.
- During an interview with TV station Welt, economist Veronika Grimm suggested that the introduction of climate money could create acceptance for climate protection, particularly among those with lower incomes.
- In a statement to the Rheinische Post, German Farmers' Association President Joachim Rukwied expressed concern over proposed cuts to agricultural subsidies, including the removal of concessions for agricultural diesel and vehicle tax.
- Climatgeld, or climate money, became a topic of discussion among critics of the coalition's budget agreement, including Verena Bentele of the VdK, who saw it as a necessary measure to counteract the negative social impacts of the CO2 price increase.
- Representatives of the Ampel party attempted to alleviate concerns about cuts to pension funds, with Labor Minister Hubertus Heil assuring that no increases in contributions or risks to current pension levels were expected in the short or medium term.
- Activists, including those from the VdK, have called for an increased focus on reducing climate-damaging subsidies, in addition to support for climate protection initiatives like Fridays for Future.
Source: www.stern.de
