Lower Saxony’s state parliament meets on Wednesday (from 9 a.m.) for a special session in the energy crisis. The government factions SPD and Greens want to adopt a supplementary budget of 2.9 billion euros for the years 2022 and 2023. The money is said to come mainly from higher tax revenues due to inflation and to deal with the consequences of the Ukraine war and higher energy prices. Among other things, families, small and medium-sized companies, municipalities as well as cultural institutions and sports clubs are to be relieved.
Finance Minister Gerald Heere (Greens) had announced that in addition to emergency aid, the supplementary budget should also make it possible to advance the energy transition. “In order to counter the energy crisis and become independent of Russian gas, extensive investments in the energy infrastructure are necessary,” said Heere.
In addition, the state parliament decides on the expansion of the executive committee from four to five vice presidents planned by the SPD, CDU and Greens. The project is controversial because a vice president receives a 40 percent surcharge on the basic monthly salary of 7,485 euros. Another deputy would cost the country just under 180,000 euros for the five-year legislative period.
“While citizens are encouraged to be as economical as possible, the representatives of the SPD, CDU and Greens treat themselves to highly paid posts for which there is no objective reason,” criticized Klaus Wichmann, parliamentary director of the AfD parliamentary group, a few days ago. The other parliamentary groups, on the other hand, argue that the Vice Presidents should “appear more intensively to promote our democracy” against the background of increasing attacks on democracy in the state of Lower Saxony.
Other topics in the state parliament session will be the planned 49-euro ticket for local transport, the promotion of language day-care centers, corona policy and the accommodation of refugees.
Agenda