Before the vote in the Bundestag, Verdi boss Frank Werneke denounced the Union’s course in the discussion about the planned citizens’ income.
“The Union’s blockade of citizen income is irresponsible,” Werneke told the “Stuttgarter Zeitung” and the “Stuttgarter Nachrichten”. The Union distinguishes itself at the expense of hundreds of thousands of people in need. “In fact, there are necessary improvements in the new citizen’s income that are good for people and also improve the chances of integration into the labor market.” It is good, for example, that professional training should be improved and the long-term unemployed should be given the opportunity to catch up on training.
vote on Thursday
The Bundestag votes this Thursday on the planned citizens’ allowance. The SPD, Greens and FDP are expected to pass the law with their majority – against resistance from the opposition. The Union, on whose approval the traffic light is later dependent in the Bundesrat for a final adoption of the citizens’ allowance, has repeatedly criticized the planned change away from the previous Hartz IV system in recent weeks and is threatening a blockade in the state chamber. From the point of view of the CDU and CSU, the citizen’s income reduces, among other things, the motivation to accept a job.
The social policy spokesman for the SPD parliamentary group, Martin Rosemann, expressed his confidence in the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung” that a compromise could be reached with the federal states in the mediation committee. All of the Union’s arguments against citizen’s income are “without any facts”. “But we are ready to talk,” he added. “A compromise is possible. We have made proposals, now it’s the Union’s turn.”
Caritas President Eva Maria Welskop-Deffaa warned in the newspapers of the Funke media group: “I urgently call on those responsible in politics not to carry out their political dissent about parts of the basic income reform on the backs of the poorest.”
