The federal and state governments have not yet reached a consensus on the distribution of the costs for relieving citizens and companies in view of the high energy prices. “There are still discussions about how this can be shouldered in detail,” said Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) after the consultations with the prime ministers of the federal states in Berlin. “But I have the impression that we are on a very constructive path and that we will also come to an agreement about this task.”
Scholz calculated that the previous relief packages and the special fund now planned will have a total volume of 295 billion euros. “The federal government will take on and finance almost 240, 250 billion euros of this,” said the Chancellor. According to him, the concrete design of the planned electricity and gas price brake is still being discussed.
With a view to an imminent model for the concrete design of the planned gas price brake, Scholz referred to an expert commission set up by the government. He assumes that there will be results next week, to which the federal government can then act “immediately”, he said. It should be clear to everyone what their relief will look like in concrete terms. “It’s something that has to be done very well.” The chairmen of the commission had declared that they would work out a “resilient proposal” at a meeting next weekend and present it to politicians.
Wüst complained about a lack of willingness to compromise
North Rhine-Westphalia’s Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) sharply criticized the federal government after the talks. “Despite the constructive attitude of the federal states, the federal government has shown little willingness to compromise on very important issues today,” said Wüst after the consultations with the chancellor and the prime ministers of the federal states on Tuesday in Berlin.
“We’ve only made a few steps forward today and we’re still a long way from reaching our goal.” From the point of view of many countries, this is simply not enough. According to Wüst, the federal states went into these talks “constructively and with an outstretched hand”.
Woidke: “Important intermediate step”
Brandenburg’s Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke (SPD), meanwhile, is pushing for quick help for citizens and companies. Despite open questions about the distribution of the costs for the planned relief, he spoke of an “important intermediate step”. “It is crucial that concrete action is taken quickly,” said Woidke, according to the announcement.
The agreed electricity and gas price brake will significantly relieve citizens as well as industry and trade. “It has to come quickly.” The federal and state governments had not yet reached a consensus on how to distribute the costs of relieving the burden on citizens and companies. However, Woidke spoke of the fact that national unity had been created.
Kretschmann very disappointed
The Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg, Winfried Kretschmann, was very disappointed with the results. “I would have hoped that we would put a button on it, but unfortunately that didn’t happen,” said the Greens politician in the US city of Pittsburgh. The states are too far apart from the federal government on individual issues.
Kretschmann is currently on a delegation trip to the USA and has been connected digitally to the federal-state round table from Pittsburgh in the US state of Pennsylvania. In the past few weeks, he had repeatedly insisted on more money from the federal government – including for local rail transport in the federal states.
