Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) - The Greens parliamentary group leader in the North Rhine-Westphalian state parliament has called for a cross-party and cross-state consensus to relieve the municipalities of their billions in old debts. "All parties are responsible and must come to a conclusion," said parliamentary group leader Verena Schäffer of the German Press Agency. The SPD, Greens and FDP in the federal government had also agreed in their coalition agreement that the municipalities should be relieved of the old debts and that there had to be an effort by the federal government and the states concerned. "As a black-green coalition in North Rhine-Westphalia, we are ready to do our part," says Schäffer.
However, the Greens also expect Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) "to negotiate fairly and seriously and to work out proposals together with the federal states". At the same time, the Greens in North Rhine-Westphalia expect the federal states that are not affected by old debts not to block a solution in the Bundesrat. "It must not fail because other federal states do not go along with it," says Schäffer. "If there is no solution at federal level despite clear commitments in the coalition agreement, we as the NRW coalition will strive for our own solution." But it would actually "make more sense if the federal government lived up to its responsibility," emphasized Schäffer.
NRW Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) had also asked the federal government to keep its promises to solve the old debt problem and to tackle the project together with the federal states. In the coalition agreement, the CDU and the Greens promised to set up an old debt fund themselves this year if the federal government fails to meet its responsibilities. According to the State Statistical Office, municipal debts including municipal holdings in NRW totaled 82.5 billion euros at the end of 2021.
