Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) - The opposition in the North Rhine-Westphalia state parliament has accused the state government of a lack of financial security for its announced aid package worth billions against the energy crisis. Black-Green wants to "muddle through the crisis," said FDP parliamentary group leader Henning Höne on Friday in the state parliament.
Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) had previously announced that the state would provide a total of 14.4 billion euros for measures to deal with the crisis. For this purpose, the general reserve in the budget will be released and existing loans will be used.
Höne suspected that the state government wanted to use the remaining eight billion euros from the Corona rescue package. But then there is still no money to finance the aid package. Because even from the reserve, the country could probably not take more than 700 million euros. Nevertheless, the state government decided "with seeing eyes to present a" voodoo budget for 2023". That was a "fiscal policy false start" by the new black-green government.
The three-pillar model of help, resilience and prevention mentioned by Wüst also remains nebulous, said Höne. "Yes, thank you very much for the power point slide, but what I'm missing is what's actually behind it." Wüst had previously said that the country was launching its own relief measures totaling 3.5 billion euros and called this a "three-pillar plan". "The phrase pig is full, the list of concrete answers is empty," Höne summed up.
SPD faction leader Thomas Kutschaty accused Wüst of having waited so long with his own crisis aid until the federal government paid. The people in NRW remained in the dark, however, because Wüst "didn't put anything concrete on the table". The latest figures on economic growth show how important one's own economic policy initiatives are, according to which NRW is at the bottom of economic development in Germany.
"It's time you found an appropriate role," Kuchaty said in the direction of the head of government. "It's not your job to oppose the chancellor. It's your job to govern our country."
