Immediately before renewed talks about the financing of relief measures worth billions, North Rhine-Westphalia’s Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) indicated that the states were willing to compromise.
If there is clarity in the federal-state talks on Wednesday about the financing of local public transport and other issues, then the 65 billion euro relief package is “okay for us,” said Wüst on Wednesday morning on Deutschlandfunk. The clarification of open questions, such as the 49-euro ticket and refugee costs, is a prerequisite for the states to support the federal government’s third relief package.
There are still “a lot of open points,” said Wüst. “But it’s manageable.” In the morning, the 16 heads of government of the federal states will first consult among themselves, and in the afternoon they will meet with Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD). Both sides called for an agreement in advance. At the previous meeting in early October, the federal and state governments broke up without agreement.
Wüst called the increase in regionalization funds for local public transport by one billion euros promised by the federal government “not enough”. “My enthusiasm is limited,” said the CDU politician, who is co-chair of the Prime Ministers’ Conference. But that will be discussed again in 2024.
The services in local transport should not be thinned out, so Wüst. The planned 49-euro ticket “to get started” has a very attractive price. But: “If you don’t have an offer in rural areas, it doesn’t help that the offer you don’t have is cheaper.”
In the ZDF “Morgenmagazin” Wüst said that the countries rightly expected that open questions would be clarified. “Crisis needs clarity and I am confident that we will work on it today and will get results.” The meeting was well prepared.
As can be seen from the draft resolution, the federal government wants to pay additional regionalization funds of one billion euros for 2022, and from 2023 onwards they are to be increased by three percent annually.
