The chancellor has promised a third relief package - now he has to deliver. The traffic light parties have been negotiating concrete help for citizens since midday. There are many proposals on the table. In any case, only one controversial topic should be left out.
The heads of the traffic light coalition want to decide in these hours about significant relief because of the high prices. The party and parliamentary group leaders met Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin late in the morning. At a cabinet meeting in the middle of the week, Scholz had announced a relief package that was “as tailor-made as possible, as efficient as possible, as targeted as possible”. The parliamentary manager of the SPD parliamentary group, Katja Mast, said on Deutschlandfunk: "We know that we cannot leave people alone with inflation and rising energy prices."
Various suggestions are discussed:
The exact time for the start of the coalition committee meeting in the Chancellery had remained open in advance. Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck from the Greens, Finance Minister Christian Lindner from the FDP and the party and faction leaders in Scholz's official seat came to the consultations in the morning.
From the point of view of the SPD chairman Lars Klingbeil, more precise help than before is necessary. "We have to help those who are really in existential need," he told the Süddeutsche Zeitung. This also means that high earners suffer losses, "but they can cope with that". The fact that the pensioners were not taken into account in the energy flat rate of 300 euros was "a mistake" that must now be corrected.
A number of exemptions have already been approved:
The measures taken so far add up to a good 30 billion euros. However, according to their own announcements, trade unions, the left and the AfD may want to call on dissatisfied people to hold social protests in the fall. IG Metall chairman Jörg Hofmann said: "It's about nothing less than the question of whether it will be possible to relieve the burden on citizens effectively and comprehensibly, or whether the growing uncertainty will lead to a break in social cohesion."
According to the Greens, the question of a possible continued operation of the German nuclear power plants will not play a role in the negotiations. "We are negotiating the third relief package in the coalition committee this weekend. The nuclear issue is not one of them," said a party spokesman. The "Bild" had previously reported that the leaders of the SPD, Greens and FDP also wanted to negotiate the continued operation of the nuclear power plants.
