Scandal about basic child security
Paus feels supported by the chancellor
08/19/2023 5:57 p.m
With her veto on the Growth Opportunities Act, Family Minister Paus caused a scandal. She sees herself on the finish line and thanks Chancellor Scholz. He had “made his support for basic child security clear”. The FDP warns against an “irrational formation of legends”.
Family Minister Lisa Paus feels supported by the highest authority in the dispute within the coalition about basic child security. “I would like to thank the Chancellor for once again emphasizing his support for basic child security yesterday,” said the Greens politician on the sidelines of an open day at her ministry in Berlin. “We are on the home stretch and I am optimistic about further talks with the Federal Minister of Finance,” she said, referring to Christian Lindner from the FDP.
With the basic child security, Paus wants to combine benefits for families and increase them at the same time. The FDP is critical of performance improvements. Before the summer break, Chancellor Olaf Scholz had asked Paus to submit a unified draft law by the end of August. The SPD politician said on Friday that he saw work on the project as going well. Paus had previously caused an uproar in the cabinet: she blocked the so-called Growth Opportunities Act with tax breaks, which are intended to relieve the economy by around six billion euros a year.
The traffic light must have an eye on both, investments in children and in the economy, said Paus now. “In my opinion, we should send this signal together to the people in the country.” If the federal government does not invest in children, the follow-up costs for the state and society are many times higher than the investment in basic child security, she argued.
Green politician Jürgen Trittin supported Paus for their blockade. “In view of the experiences in the coalition, you can more than understand Lisa Paus’ actions,” said the former Greens parliamentary group leader. “Unlike with the Red-Green Party, you can’t rely on agreements with the SPD and the FDP. It’s only logical that the agreed basic child protection is properly financed before you agree to tax cuts from Mr. Lindner.” Paus “broke through the mechanism whereby the Greens repeatedly paid for a political agreement with the FDP because they paid in advance,” said the former Federal Environment Minister. At the same time, he doubted the effectiveness of the relief proposed by Lindner.
FDP parliamentary group leader Christoph Meyer accused Trittin of “irrational creation of legends”. “Even now, Jürgen Trittin is wrong when he believes that the blackmail and kidnapping of the urgently needed Growth Opportunities Act would help people and companies,” he said. Internal power struggles by the Greens now prevented growth impulses to secure prosperity.
Jusos want quick agreement
Juso boss Jessica Rosenthal called for a quick agreement on basic child security. “I can’t take another day that there is child poverty in a rich country like Germany and families don’t get the support they deserve,” she told the Rheinische Post. “But the way Lisa Paus is acting here is not a good way. It doesn’t help us to link irrelevant topics together.”
Above all, the costs and scope of basic child security are disputed. Only two billion euros are currently earmarked for the starting year 2025 – according to Finance Minister Lindner as a “placeholder”. Paus initially asked for twelve billion, later up to seven billion euros per year. According to a report by “Zeit online”, the draft law should initially be worth 3.5 billion euros in 2025.
NRW Minister of Social Affairs Karl-Josef Laumann called on the traffic light coalition to improve educational opportunities with basic child security. It shouldn’t just be about higher performance, “but above all about improving the chances of advancement for children and young people in the education system,” said the CDU politician to the editorial network Germany. “The central point of this reform should be that children get through school better.”