SPD Prime Minister calls for 'hard' citizens' money sanctions
The Saarland's Minister-President demands the tightening of sanctions in the misuse of citizen's money. Rehlinger sees a "poisoned debate" in the themes of migration and social state. A CDU politician warns his party not to focus too much on these areas.
In the debate about the future of citizen's money, the Saarland's Minister-President Anke Rehlinger demands a more efficient effect of the controversial social benefit and calls for penalties and sanctions in case of corresponding misuse. The receipt of citizen's money and black work seems "under certain circumstances profitable - and people observe this in their environment", said Rehlinger to the "Tagesspiegel" from Berlin. "The state must act more effectively against black work, and that also with hard sanctions on social benefits, because that is a double fraud on society."
The citizen's money "must become more targeted and misuse must be punished", said the SPD politician: "Not least, we must bring people with recognized asylum status much more into work." Rehlinger said, the themes of migration and social state "are increasingly becoming a poisoned debate, among other things because the proportion of citizen's money recipients with a migration background is increasing." One thing is clear: "Work will always be more profitable than the receipt of social benefits - also and especially through citizen's money."
The CDU social politician Dennis Radtke warns his own party not to focus too much on the themes of citizen's money and migration. "The criticism of citizen's money is now shared by large parts of the traffic light coalition and shows that we are fundamentally right. However, we must be careful not to only talk about citizen's money and migration anymore", said Radtke. The CDU member of the European Parliament is considered a possible future chairman of the CDU workers' wing CDA. The position will be decided in September.
"We now have a profound social crisis. In France and the Netherlands, affordable housing and the cost of living were the drivers for Le Pen and Wilders", said Radtke: "We can see how Wagenknecht is currently scoring with these themes. We must stand up to the people with our own ideas and clear concepts on these topics." If the Union proves itself to be "credible and empathetic", he believes it could achieve a result of "38 percent and more" in the federal election in 2025.
The need for stricter consequences against misuse of the citizens' money was emphasized by the SPD politician, who advocated for a more focused and targeted use of these funds. The CDU social politician Dennis Radtke urged his party to broaden their focus beyond just citizen's money and migration, recognizing the potential for these issues to fuel support for other political factions.
