On Wednesday, the prime ministers will discuss with Chancellor Olaf Scholz about reducing energy prices, refugee costs and increasing housing benefits. The states are demanding more support, the federal government is slowing down.
Finance Minister Christian Lindner, Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder at the federal-state meeting.
Gas price brake, 49-euro ticket, housing benefit and refugee accommodation. The list of topics for the meeting of the prime ministers with Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Wednesday is long. At the same time, the pressure to reach an agreement is high because decisions have been repeatedly postponed. In the morning, the 16 heads of government of the federal states will deliberate among themselves, in the afternoon they will meet with the Federal Chancellor.
Both sides called for an agreement. Because at the previous meeting in early October, the federal and state governments had parted ways without a joint decision. “People expect us to deliver results,” said North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst in the joint morning program of ARD and ZDF. “Crisis needs clarity and I am confident that we will also deliver results,” said the CDU politician. Compared to the last round in October, they are now well prepared.
However, there are still points of contention, said Wüst and named the subsidies for oil or pellet heating. “The federal government now recognizes that there is a problem and wants hardship solutions. However, you have to take a very close look at how many people benefit from it and when.” In his state of North Rhine-Westphalia alone, a quarter of the people have oil heating.
The Hessian Prime Minister Boris Rhein meanwhile sees the Berlin traffic light government as having an obligation. “The federal government has to move on Wednesday so that there can be an agreement,” said the CDU politician to the editorial network Germany.
The deputy FDP parliamentary group leader Christoph Meyer, on the other hand, expects “from the prime ministers that the federal states will finally give up their resistance to their share of the financing of the third relief package”. The federal states are tactical and, despite high tax revenues, are evading their responsibility, while citizens and companies are in urgent need of relief, Meyer told the dpa news agency.
Dispute about the start of the gas price brake
A point of contention between the federal and state governments is the relief due to the high energy costs. The state wants to take over the December discount with a one-off payment. In addition, the gas price for private customers is to be capped from March, if possible retrospectively to February. According to the federal government’s plans, gas should cost 12 cents per kilowatt hour for 80 percent of the previous year’s consumption. If you use more, you have to pay more. However, the March date is too late for the federal states. They had demanded that gas prices be subsidized from January.
However, there is general agreement that there should be a nationwide 49-euro ticket. But the federal states make permanently higher subsidies from the federal government a condition. Chancellor Scholz was nevertheless confident that an agreement would be reached. The SPD politician said at a public dialogue in Gifhorn, Lower Saxony, that the states had almost agreed on such a “Germany ticket”.
Disagreement on housing benefit and refugee costs
The federal and state governments are still at odds when it comes to financing the accommodation costs for refugees who are coming to Germany from the Ukraine and are now increasingly using the Balkan route. The states are demanding greater federal involvement. According to the proposal for the Prime Ministers’ Conference, the federal government wants to accommodate the federal states and is now offering them a total of 4.25 billion euros this year and next for the care of refugees.
It is also disputed how the significant increase in housing allowances planned by the federal government is to be financed. In January, the state rent subsidy is to increase by an average of 190 euros per month and be paid to an additional 1.4 million citizens. So far, half of the housing allowance has been financed by the federal government and half by the states. But here, too, the states are demanding more support from the federal government.