Dresden (dpa / sn) - The planned gas levy continues to cause resentment in Saxony. The AfD in the Saxon state parliament called on Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU) on Tuesday to work in Berlin to stop the levy. "The gas surcharge is unfair and another attack on the livelihood of the citizens (...) It cannot be that some of the citizens should bleed for the energy policy course of the federal government," said AfD parliamentary group deputy Sebastian Wippel.

According to Wippel, the federal government "consciously accepted a massive increase in the price of gas" with the sanctions against Russia. However, you should not simply pass on the political and financial costs to a few citizens. It is absurd to complain about a lack of gas from the Nord Stream 1 pipeline when Nord Stream 2 can go into operation immediately. The AfD continues to call for a drastic tax cut on gas, petrol and electricity.

The left welcomed "the encouragement of the Association of the Saxon Economy" for the party's demand that energy prices be controlled by the state again. "We've been vehemently demanding that since the price increases last fall," said Marco Böhme, parliamentary director of the Left Party in the state parliament. It is urgently necessary to reintroduce a functioning government energy price control system in order to prevent speculation and extortionate prices at energy companies. Employer President Jörg Brückner spoke out in favor of price controls on Monday prices groan," emphasized Böhme. It is unfair to redistribute even more money from bottom to top by means of a levy. "It would be fair to support the municipal suppliers, who provide a large part of the heat supply, from the federal budget and also to skim off the war and crisis profits of the corporations with an "excess profit tax".

CDU members from the Görlitz district were also alarmed. The gas surcharge endangers the existence of medium-sized companies, according to a statement by the local SME and Economic Union (MIT) in the Saxon CDU. “Countless small and medium-sized companies are already up to their necks in water. They are suffering from inflation, price explosions, supply chain bottlenecks and the aftermath of the corona crisis,” said Sylke Jennewein, MIT chairwoman in the Görlitz district association. The traffic light government must immediately take countermeasures elsewhere and provide relief: "Otherwise there is a risk of closures."