Social: Left boss calls for automatic inflation compensation

In view of the high inflation, Left Co-Chairman Martin Schirdewan calls for further direct help for those particularly affected.

He envisages “that people who earn minimum wage, i.e. work for minimum wage, who receive student loans and, above all, who also receive social benefits, have automatic inflation compensation so that the rising prices are also reflected in their income and social welfare payments “said Schirdewan in an interview with Deutschlandfunk. There is also such an adjustment for inflation in other European countries, such as Belgium.

Inflation contributes to the fact that those with low incomes in particular no longer know how to meet their everyday needs. One talks about electricity and gas bills, clothing and food, said Schirdewan.

Schirdewan: The market doesn’t regulate everything

With a view to the energy crisis or climate change, for example, one has to take note of “that the market does not regulate everything”. In his opinion, this has to do with the fact that the state has liberalized large areas of its original responsibility in the area of ​​public services and thus handed them over to the market, said the Left Co-Chairman. You have to follow up on that. “The big corporations, the super-rich, have to take their responsibility.” You have to “distribute massively” to enable “a massive investment program”. The services of general interest belong in the public sector, emphasized the Left Co-Chairman.

In the past few months, the federal government had tried to relieve citizens of the high prices with various measures, including December emergency aid, the gas and electricity price brakes and one-off payments such as the energy price flat rate.