Eastern state leaders meet Scholz
Schwesig: “People in East Germany very dissatisfied”
18.06.2024, 07:14 a.m.
Care, hospital reform, hydrogen: The prime ministers of the eastern German states have a lot to discuss with the Chancellor. MV Prime Minister Schwesig speaks of great dissatisfaction – and has concrete demands.
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania’s head of government Manuela Schwesig called for greater consideration of East German concerns before the East German Prime Ministers’ Conference in Wittenberg in Saxony-Anhalt with Chancellor Olaf Scholz. “The last elections have shown that people in East Germany are very dissatisfied,” said the SPD politician.
An important issue for people is comprehensive health care. The hospital reform with the flat-rate provision is a step in the right direction, but rural areas must be given more consideration. “You cannot get the same number of cases in rural areas as in urban areas,” said Schwesig. Certain treatments can no longer be carried out in hospitals that have too few such cases. For example, the Neubrandenburg Clinic lost the care of extremely premature babies, and the liver transplant center in Rostock is in danger.
The Schwerin government leader announced that her state would be applying for a reform of nursing care insurance. She explained that people in need of care and their relatives must be relieved of the burden. A major issue is securing skilled workers. “We must make nursing care attractive so that comprehensive care is guaranteed in the future.”
Kretschmer also calls for care reform
Saxony’s head of government Michael Kretschmer of the CDU also called for financial relief in the care sector. Particularly in the eastern German states, the personal contributions are increasingly overwhelming those in need of care and their relatives, he told the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND). Because costs are also continuing to rise, a reform of the care insurance system is “overdue”.
According to the CDU politician, people in need of care are increasingly becoming welfare recipients in retirement. This is “unacceptable,” stressed Kretschmer. Care in old age should not be a question of money. As a measure, Kretschmer suggested taking over non-insurance benefits from the federal budget.
The federal government must focus more on the concerns of the working class, Schwesig stressed. “Economic progress must be made so that jobs with good wages are created.” She sees the production of hydrogen from green electricity as an important field for the future. “The eastern German states are working together to ensure that eastern Germany is sufficiently taken into account in the expansion of the hydrogen core network,” the Prime Minister stressed. “We need both a north-south and a west-east connection.”
The focus of the one-and-a-half-hour meeting between the East German prime ministers and Scholz will be on economic and energy policy as well as demographic developments. In addition, the heads of government of Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony, Thuringia, Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania want to discuss comprehensive medical care and the reform of nursing care insurance with Scholz.