Müller in the early start of ntv: "Millions of children work for our products"

Thursday 17th December 2020

Müller in the ntv early start
"Millions of children work for our products"

Federal Development Minister Gerd Müller wants to push through his variant of the supply chain law. The Chancellor also wants the law, but is much more cautious.

Federal Development Minister Gerd Müller has shown himself confident that there could be a breakthrough in the supply chain law this year. The law is controversial in the grand coalition. While Müller and Labor Minister Hubertus Heil are pushing ahead with the project, Economics Minister Peter Altmaier and Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel fear an excessive burden on the economy.

The law was not dealt with in the federal cabinet yesterday, Wednesday, but Müller said on ntv's program "Frühstart" that they were still "in daily negotiations". "Anyone who says it doesn't work doesn't want to," said the CSU politician. A supply chain law is intended to oblige German companies to guarantee compliance with minimum social and ecological standards for foreign suppliers.

"When we drink our coffee, enjoy chocolate or have bananas on our plate at Christmas, millions of children work for our products," he said. "It doesn't have to get more expensive, it just has to be fair." In this context, Müller also mentioned exploitation in the jewelry and textile industry, but also in the quarries of India: "Every third granite tombstone in Germany is cut by children," said Müller.

Chancellor Angela Merkel had spoken about the law in the Bundestag on Wednesday, but teased more cautious tones. "I am for the supply chain law," she said. A little later, however, she added that the coalition agreement made no mention of "additional civil liability" for companies. There was also no agreement on the size of the company. "That's why there are discussions about it."

Conditions on Lesbos are "a major scandal in the EU"

In addition, Müller expressed sharp criticism of the “catastrophic conditions” in the refugee camps on the Greek islands: “Little or nothing has changed in the direction of humanity and basic sanitary standards Brands a few months ago on Lesbos have not yet created any conditions that are really humanitarian. "

The conditions in the refugee camp on Lesbos are even worse than in camps in Africa: "It's wet, it's freezing, the children are freezing, rats are running through the camps. Unbearable. I don't know anything like that in Africa." The situation "screams to heaven", said Müller and added: "Especially now at Christmas and especially in view of the discussion we had three months ago, where everyone said: This has to change."

In this context, Müller called for a "private fund" from the companies that were among the economic winners in the corona pandemic, citing Amazon, Google, Facebook and Apple as examples. These should "bring in a few billions so that we can balance the deficit in the humanitarian field".