The federal government wants to help Germany through the crisis with a mountain of money. But she needs the approval of the countries – and that is now pending.
Finance Minister Christian Lindner has asked the federal states to approve the €200 billion special pot to curb gas and electricity prices.
“In this way we are cushioning the heaviest burdens for consumers and companies,” said the FDP politician to the German Press Agency before the decisive vote in the Bundesrat on Friday. The current exceptional situation requires extraordinary measures. “If this step were to fail because of the federal states, Germany’s economic prospects would be at stake,” he warned, adding: “I am sure that the federal states are aware of this responsibility.”
relief measures
The federal government wants to use loans of up to 200 billion euros to finance a gas and electricity price brake and help for companies. The debts are to be taken on outside of the normal federal budget via a so-called special fund. The Bundestag has already approved another exception to the debt brake enshrined in the Basic Law. However, the plans can only be implemented if the federal states in the Bundesrat agree on Friday. The main criticism is that the loans, which should last until 2024, are to be taken out of the federal budget.
The federal government is under enormous pressure when it comes to designing the specific relief measures: Aid for specific groups is being demanded from all sides.
requirements
The CSU chairman Markus Söder called for “noticeable relief for rural areas”. In the “Augsburger Allgemeine” (Friday), the Bavarian Prime Minister named households that heat with oil and pellets and would therefore not benefit from the planned gas price brake, and drivers who only come to work with their own car. “A fuel price brake would help commuters in particular,” he said, and also called for relief for medium-sized companies.
The Federal Association of Energy and Water Industries demands that the federal government reimburse the municipal utilities in advance for the planned waiver of a December discount for energy customers. This must be done in November, said the head of the association, Kerstin Andreae, to the Düsseldorf “Rheinische Post” (Friday). In the draft law of the Federal Ministry of Economics for one-off payments, this is “not yet sufficiently ensured”.
The budget expert of the Greens in the Bundestag, Sven-Christian Kindler, in turn appealed to the federal states to contribute more financially to the crisis management. The tax estimate published on Thursday showed that they would continue to have more tax revenue than the federal government and at the same time take out significantly fewer emergency loans in 2022, he told the same newspaper. “I assume that the federal states, like the federal government, will now jointly face the responsibility of the state as a whole, including fair financing in this crisis.”
Source: Stern
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