Schwerin (dpa/mv) - The hardship fund of 30 million euros proposed by the state government to reduce the burden of rising energy prices has triggered different reactions. Green member of the state parliament Anne Shepley called the announcement by Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig (SPD) a "PR gag". On Tuesday, she referred to 290,000 people on Twitter who were at risk of poverty in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. If they were to use the fund, “that would be around 100 euros per inhabitant,” wrote Shepley in the short message service.
At the energy summit on Monday in Rostock, Schwesig declared the state's willingness to support financial aid from the federal government for citizens and companies particularly affected by the high electricity and gas prices with its own hardship fund. "It's about compensating for absolute hardship," emphasized the head of government. So far, however, there are no concrete plans for further federal support packages and thus also criteria according to which the state aid should be granted.
The left as SPD coalition partner in Schwerin welcomed the hardship fund planned by the state as an important signal. "To reflexively describe it as a PR stunt, as the Greens do, is cynical towards those affected," says a statement from the state executive. However, the party leaders Vanessa Müller and Peter Ritter were critical of the waiver of demands for an excess profit tax: "It is disappointing for us to defame the excess profit tax as a "combat concept" and to "deselect" it with this reason. That is simply irrelevant," says in the message. At the summit, business representatives made sure that this point was deleted from the resolution paper.
While the SPD and the Greens in the federal government are calling for an extra tax on profits from the crisis, for example from oil companies, their coalition partner FDP is vehemently opposed to it.
