Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) - In view of the jumps in energy and food prices, the SPD parliamentary group has called on the state to provide rapid relief for people in the south-west. "The state of Baden-Württemberg, of all people, doesn't bat an eyelash and hasn't decided on a single discharge," criticized SPD parliamentary group leader Andreas Stoch on Thursday in Stuttgart. Instead of creating a risk buffer of almost 1.5 billion euros, green-black should rather invest the money and especially help people in need. Stoch called for an emergency fund to prevent forced evictions in winter because tenants can no longer pay their electricity and gas bills.
During their retreat in Constance, the largest opposition faction in the state parliament discussed the right strategy in the crisis with expert Marcel Fratzscher, head of the German Institute for Economic Research in Berlin. Fratzscher had spoken out in favor of the country preferring to relieve people financially now rather than creating reserves. According to Stoch, Fratzscher asks: "What kind of crisis do you want to wait for?"
The SPD parliamentary group leader pointed out that the state was benefiting from the high inflation by increasing revenue from sales tax. Baden-Württemberg can count on four billion euros more this year. It is therefore wrong when Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann (Greens) says that it is "unworkable" for the state to participate in the relief planned by the federal government. "The country doesn't have an income problem at the moment." The state government should therefore urgently take the outstretched hand of the federal government and co-finance a successor to the 9-euro ticket. It is about the foreseeable 180 million euros for the country.
