Energy and food prices continue to rise, and there is no end in sight. Oh, higher rents threaten. Demands from the coalition for another aid package are getting louder.
In view of rising prices, the traffic light coalition wants to decide on further relief before the parliamentary summer break, according to SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich.
Despite the two relief packages that have already been passed, we know that because of rising energy and food prices, middle society in particular needs further relief, said Mützenich to the news portal t-online. When asked whether he was in favor of the proposal to also pay pensioners the energy flat rate of 300 euros, he said: “I can imagine that. But we will discuss and decide together.”
Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir also believes that further aid is necessary. The “Welt am Sonntag” said the Green politician: “I am concerned about the current price development for food due to the Ukraine war.” The federal government immediately put together relief packages in order to react to the consequences of the war. “And if things continue like this, then I can tell you: After the relief package is before the relief package.”
Inflation «greatest danger» for social peace
Federal Finance Minister and FDP leader Christian Lindner called inflation “the greatest threat to economic development and social peace” in the country: “Therefore, combating it must have priority in all important tasks,” said Lindner of the “Passauer Neue Presse” (Saturday). . Lindner could imagine tax relief. “We’re doing a wage and income tax reform next year, adjusting the basic tax allowance and the tax rate for inflation. And if I have my way, there will be additional relief for those on low and medium incomes.”
The social association VdK wants to take legal action against one point in the relief package. It is about the energy flat rate of 300 euros. The VdK chairwoman Verena Bentele told the “Bild am Sonntag”: “Poor pensioners, but also caring relatives, people who receive sickness or parental allowance, go away empty-handed. That violates the principle of equality.”
Not with the watering can
The Association of Towns and Municipalities is calling for citizens to be permanently relieved of rising energy prices. “If you want to avoid social explosives, you have to focus on families and people with low incomes in particular,” said general manager Gerd Landsberg of the Funke media group. Thuringia’s Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow (left) demanded in the “Tagesspiegel” (Sunday): “We shouldn’t go over the whole of society with the watering can again.”
The left wing of the SPD wants to protect tenants from inflation-related rent increases with state intervention. “Vonovia and other real estate companies regularly show that they have dollar signs in their eyes and act completely irresponsibly,” said the co-chairman of the Democratic Left Forum in the SPD, Sebastian Roloff, the “Handelsblatt”. The state must intervene if the market is significantly imbalanced. “A temporary freeze on rents, a municipal right of first refusal and a deprivatization of real estate groups are necessary and suitable means that are now required.”
If inflation persists, rents will rise
The triggers are statements by the head of Germany’s largest real estate group Vonovia, Rolf Buch. He told the “Handelsblatt”: “If inflation is permanently at four percent, rents will have to increase accordingly every year in the future.” Buch answered the question “What do the tenants of the 500,000 apartments from Vonovia have to prepare for?” responded. A spokeswoman emphasized that the statements were about economic development and not about specific announcements.
SPD leader Lars Klingbeil called rent increases irresponsible because of inflation. “We are currently being asked to stand together as a country in this difficult situation,” he told the Funke media group. The deputy FDP chairman Wolfgang Kubicki warned against an intervention. “We need more apartments, not more state intervention,” he told the “Handelsblatt”. Criticism also came from the Union economic wing: “Expropriations do not create living space – on the contrary: the threat of nationalization prevents investments,” said Gitta Connemann (CDU), Chairwoman of the SME and Economic Union (MIT), the newspaper.
CDU leader Friedrich Merz warned against the expectation that the state would compensate for all the additional costs caused by inflation. “Not every cost development can be offset by the public coffers,” Merz told the editorial network Germany. The relief proposals from the Union faction are on the table. These included the abolition of cold progression, a flat-rate energy price for pensioners and students and the reduction of electricity tax to the EU minimum tax rate.
