"We have a traffic light emergency"
CSU leader Söder once again calls for new elections. "I predict that this federal government will no longer have the strength," he said on Maischberger. The debt brake is not to blame for the budget crisis, "but the trickery of the traffic light".
Bavaria's Minister President Markus Söder has once again called for new elections next year. Germany cannot get out of the national crisis with the traffic light coalition, said the CSU leader on the ARD talk show Maischberger. At the same time, the politician reiterated his savings proposals, particularly in the social sector.
According to Söder, Chancellor Scholz's government statement in the Bundestag on Tuesday was disappointing. He had hoped that the Chancellor would send a signal of hope and confidence. That had failed to materialize. "The Chancellor can do better," says the CSU politician. "A government statement that the Chancellor himself announces, where you expect, it doesn't have to be the double whammy, but something has to come in this crisis - to give the population support, hope and optimism or at least some kind of orientation." The government statement contained none of this.
Scholz's appearance had had an even worse effect on the traffic lights than on the journalists. They had almost unanimously criticized the government statement on the commentary pages of the newspapers on Wednesday morning. "If you saw the faces of the traffic light coalition members: They were appalled by such weak leadership from their leader."
That is why Söder is sticking to his call for new elections soon, even if this would make the AfD stronger. The traffic light coalition had used up a lot of internal common ground. "I predict that this federal government will no longer have the strength." That worries him in the current national crisis.
Söder calls for a new energy policy
On Wednesday evening, Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner stated on ZDF that the 2024 budget was 17 billion euros short. For Söder, this means that savings must be made now. He is calling for the heating law to be scrapped and is in favor of cuts to the citizens' income. These could, for example, affect people who have not yet worked in Germany, such as refugees from Ukraine who would come in the future.
Söder rejects a relaxation of the debt brake. "I am not convinced that abolishing the debt brake or a reform that ultimately overrides it will solve the problem. On the contrary: the debt brake now gives us many options," said Söder. The debt brake is not to blame for the current budget crisis, "but the trickery of the traffic light". "And that's why we actually have an emergency, but not an emergency from outside, but an emergency from the traffic lights," analyzed the Bavarian Minister President.
Söder initially sidestepped the question of whether Bavaria wanted to forego the 1.3 billion euros in federal funding for large-scale hydrogen and microelectronics projects. These projects would receive 10 billion euros in funding from the Bavarian state budget each year. "In recent years, we have launched over five billion for high-tech alone. We can do it, we are doing it." But then he criticized the federal government's savings for the federal states. At the same time, he would like the traffic light coalition to invest more money in individual industrial sectors. In this context, he also rejects the abolition of the reduced VAT rate for the catering industry. Supporting a few large companies is wrong. Söder calls this "state interventionism".
"I belong in Bavaria"
The CSU leader criticized the energy policy of the traffic light coalition as fundamentally wrong. It relies too much on imports, says Söder and calls for more energy to be produced in Germany. As an example, he cites the import of expensive fracking gas from the USA, which could also be produced in Germany.
When asked about his ambitions to run for chancellor again, Söder replies: "I belong in Bavaria". He continued: "And my job is to support Germany from Bavaria, to support the CDU - and to check up on things in Berlin from time to time."
In response to Germany's budget crisis, Bavaria's Minister President Markus Söder has advocated for scrapping the heating law and potential cuts to the citizen's income, particularly for newcomers like refugees from Ukraine. Despite the shortage of the 2024 budget, Söder remains against abolishing the debt brake, blaming the current budget crisis on the "trickery" of the traffic light coalition.
During his criticism of the traffic light coalition's energy policy, Markus Söder emphasized the importance of producing more energy in Germany instead of relying heavily on imports, such as expensive fracking gas from the USA. Söder, who identifies as a Bavarian, stated that his role is to support Germany from Bavaria, rather than running for chancellor again himself.
Under the current national crisis, Söder has called for investments in individual industrial sectors instead of supporting a few large companies with state interventionism, while sidestepping the question of Bavaria potentially foregoing federal funding for hydrogen and microelectronics projects.
Source: www.ntv.de
