Juso boss Rosenthal about traffic lights: “I’m curious how plans are to be financed”

Never before have so many MPs under the age of 35 been part of the SPD parliamentary group as in the coming legislative period. Before the start of the traffic light coalition negotiations today, the chairwoman of the SPD youth organization Jusos, Jessica Rosenthal, sees many SPD core concerns still unfulfilled. In an interview with ntv.de, the 28-year-old insists, among other things, on higher standard rates for citizen benefits, which is to replace Hartz IV, and more tenant protection. Rosenthal, who worked as a teacher in Bonn until the summer, is negotiating the coalition herself in the education working group – and reveals what she absolutely wants to enforce there.

ntv.de: The exploratory paper between the SPD, Greens and FDP stipulates an end to the Hartz IV system, which is to be replaced by citizens’ money. As an adolescent you yourself had experiences with Hartz IV. What memory do you associate with it?

Jessica Rosenthal: My single mother and I sat at the office and were faced with the question of applying for Hartz IV, but we decided against it because of the consequences. For example, my confirmation money that I had saved for my driver’s license would also have been credited. Then we managed to get through somehow differently. But what it means to sit across from such a welfare state, what it means that nobody catches you when it is temporarily more difficult, I felt that as a teenager. And that’s tough. I can’t even imagine how it is for children and young people who experience it more intensely and over a longer period of time.

The step into the Hartz IV party SPD is not necessarily obvious from your perspective at the time, is it?

For me, it is a logical way to find the SPD if you have such experiences and see the inequality that prevails in our society, but also internationally. The SPD must be the party that advocates equal opportunities. The fact that we as a party said goodbye to the Hartz IV concept in 2019 has just not been perceived as such for a long time. If the citizenship money is now in the exploratory paper, it means a welfare state that does not approach people with suspicion, but that protects them. That means a sanction-free subsistence level and for me that means that the standard rates have to rise.

In view of the traffic light’s major investment projects and unanswered financing issues, the increase in the standard rate is shaky. Do you still expect more money?

Precisely because I come from the Hartz IV generation and know what the welfare state in its current position means for a young person’s upbringing, this point will be one that has to come for me – together with basic child security, which will change a lot.

The FDP has also successfully prevented the complete end of sanctions.

An exploratory paper is not a coalition agreement. For me, the word “duty to cooperate” does not mean sanctions that approach the subsistence level. So there could be additional benefits that can then be canceled. I’m not there for it because it’s more bureaucracy than good. One such achievement, which the FDP may also open up to, could be free use of local transport. In any case, the subject has not yet been fully discussed.

The Jusos have long mobilized against Hartz IV and called for a more social orientation of the SPD. With this course, your party has now become the strongest force. Is the SPD’s election victory a Juso success?

It is a mutual success that is based on a strong unity, but which was always possible due to an agreement on the content. We as Jusos are the mainspring of the SPD in terms of content and have set the tone. I can already say that we want to do the same in the future. We will initiate discussions that go beyond government action. Only in this way can the SPD make the idea of ​​a fairer future possible.

A quarter of the new SPD parliamentary group are Jusos. Will you put your stamp on the parliamentary group and what does it look like?

If you are from the Boys speaks, there is a glaring youth deficit in our country. 49 Jusos do not all have the same opinion. We have different personal backgrounds and sometimes come to different analyzes in terms of content. What we have in common is that we want to give young people a voice and, for example, fight for parent-independent student loans and for the pay-as-you-go apprenticeship guarantee.

Against this background, how do you assess the results of the exploratory paper?

There are good things in it, like the voting age 16, the accelerated expansion of renewable energies and the all-important increase in the minimum wage. But of course I don’t understand why the FDP is not moving on redistribution issues. We wanted to relieve the lower incomes and the middle and raise a little at the top. That this does not happen is a loss. And while it’s great that we want to build 400,000 apartments, we still need instruments like the rent moratorium for tense residential areas. That is why there is definitely still something to come when it comes to tenant protection.

Is an SPD-led government that does not even touch your assets something you have fought for in recent years?

It is not that there is no redistribution at all. An increase in the minimum wage means that people will not have to collect bottles as they get older. Basic child security is also extremely important. The paper is a real departure, especially when it comes to social policy, for example that we see ourselves as a country of immigration and want to really change lanes there; But also modernization and investment in infrastructure: these are things that have been blocked by the Union for decades.

But you don’t share the enthusiasm exuded by your party leadership?

It’s a classic as well as, so you have to look at it differently. Voters also make a differentiated judgment. One should neither break out into storms of enthusiasm nor talk badly about everything.

Has Federal Minister of Finance Scholz explained to you how all the projects and investments are to be counter-financed? The population and large parts of your party are still puzzling.

I’m still puzzling, but I’m not pushing that into Olaf Scholz’s field, but into that of the FDP. She said she doesn’t want to apply the debt brake or raise taxes. The wealthy are getting richer and richer in this country, while half of the population has no wealth at all. I am therefore curious to see how the projects and investments will be financed.

You will help negotiate the coalition agreement for the SPD in the working group on education and educational opportunities. What do you want to fight for?

There are already good things in the exploratory paper, especially long-term financing for the digitization of schools. The amount and duration of the funding and which schools are meant need to be clarified. And is there a tablet computer for every student, as required by the SPD? It is also important to me that we don’t just set up a fund and then nothing arrives in the end. To do this, bureaucratic hurdles have to be removed and schools have to be given advice to help them with the application process. In addition, the student loan must be expanded to a full grant. The circle of recipients must increase so that the number of students does not decrease any further. And: We as Jusos are fighting together with the unions for a pay-as-you-go apprenticeship guarantee. That is our hard point for the negotiations.

The interview with Jessica Rosenthal was conducted by Sebastian Huld

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