Expensive shock for electricity and gas – Greens want energy support for the poor in winter – domestic policy

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At the coalition talks for the Greens she negotiates the chapter “Children, Family, Seniors and Youth”: Greens parliamentary group leader Katrin Göring-Eckardt. In the coalition rounds she wants to pay attention to the social: more Hartz IV, a basic child benefit and for the winter energy aid for low wage earners.

BILD am SONNTAG: Ms. Göring-Eckardt, coalition negotiations have been underway since Thursday. What is the mood?

KATRIN GÖRING-ECKARDT: Constructive, good, hardworking.

Fridays for Future demonstrates against the traffic lights, criticizes: This way the climate cannot be saved. Are the young people right?

Goering-Eckardt: It is good that Fridays for Future is just around the corner and that all parties are emphatically reminded: The traffic light must become a climate government. We have already set decisive guard rails. We will now spell out important areas in the coalition negotiations.

Where, then?

Goering-Eckardt: The area of ​​building and living is important, for example. Everyone knows: Without the building sector, the climate goals of Paris can hardly be achieved. We need standards for climate-neutral building. New buildings and many existing houses and apartments have to be quickly converted in a climate-friendly way, often it is about heating, windows, insulation or solar systems on the roof.

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And who should pay for that?

Goering-Eckardt: That will have to be discussed. In our election program, we proposed a third model for the costs of climate-friendly modernization: one third of the renovation costs for landlords, one third for tenants and one third for the state. As a rule, the rent will not increase for tenants.

During the election campaign, you promised the citizens energy money to offset the higher CO2 costs associated with heating and refueling. Can you really pull this off?

Goering-Eckardt: Climate protection and justice go hand in hand. Climate protection shouldn’t depend on anyone, that’s what I value in the negotiations. We will not allow those who have the least to be overburdened.

The skyrocketing electricity, gas and tank bills are already causing a lot of people serious problems. Is the traffic light watching by doing nothing?

Goering-Eckardt: We need short-term help for everyone who is particularly hard hit by rising energy costs due to low incomes. Those who commute to work by car today usually have no other choice. Local public transport is often too poorly developed and most of them cannot yet afford a new electric car. The state must also enable low-wage earners and benefit recipients to absorb such short-term price peaks. In the medium term, however, climate protection can go easy on the wallet because it reduces our dependence on imported oil and gas.

Photo: Niels Starnick / BILD

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In an interview with BILD am SONNTAG, Katrin Göring-Eckardt calls for an energy support for the poorPhoto: Niels Starnick / BILD

The current federal government has stipulated that the Hartz IV rates will only increase by three euros in January.

Goering-Eckardt: This increase in Hartz IV rates of three euros is an impertinence. That is not even enough to compensate for inflation, which means a de facto cut for the people.

What else does the traffic light have to implement in addition to climate protection?

Goering-Eckardt: That children in Germany no longer have to live in poverty. It is a scandal that every fifth child in our country is at risk of poverty. I am proud that we enforced basic child benefits in the traffic light negotiations.

Apart from the catchphrase child basic security, there is little concrete in the traffic light paper.

Goering-Eckardt: Indeed! For children from poor families or with low incomes, there is finally an end to the pushing of applications. Services are summarized and – even more important – the money is automatically transferred to the account.

Does that mean specifically?

Goering-Eckardt: Anyone who has children no longer has to constantly run to government offices and fill out complicated forms for extra requirements or surcharges. It is a scandal that two thirds of eligible children do not receive many benefits because their parents do not know about them or cannot cope with the forms. No child should suffer from bureaucracy any longer. Mum or dad no longer have to apply for benefits, the money is calculated and transferred automatically. Just like the child tax allowance for high earners is automatically checked by the tax office.

High-earning parents receive more financial relief from the state with the child allowance than parents with low or middle incomes who receive child benefit. Is that fair?

Goering-Eckardt: Not at all. The traffic light wants to initiate a major reform. So that finally every child is worth the same. The first thing we need to do is determine what a child actually needs to live. Currently, not a single euro is taken into account for computers or mobile phones for children. That’s absurd! This new basic amount must then really reflect a child’s needs and reach everyone.

Katrin Göring-Eckardt (55) im Interview mit den BamS-Journalisten Thomas Block und Angelika HellemannPhoto: Niels Starnick / BILD

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Katrin Göring-Eckardt (55) in an interview with BamS journalists Thomas Block and Angelika HellemannPhoto: Niels Starnick / BILD

What does that mean on the account?

Goering-Eckardt: It’s not just about the money. We also want to ensure better quality in the daycare center, there will be more all-day care. The goal is clear: After the four years of government, the children in our country should be really better off. If we can do that, that would be the greatest success alongside climate protection.

Can the coalition negotiations still fail?

Goering-Eckardt: That would be a very big challenge for everyone. But I am very confident because the spirit is right.

You are traded as the Federal President and thus as the successor to Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Do you like that?

Goering-Eckardt: That honours me. But this question is not right now. Now I am helping with all my strength and experience that a government is put on the rails for everyone in the country.

The Chancellor will definitely be a man. Is there a need for a Green Vice Chancellor?

Goering-Eckardt: Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck cleared things up together. It is clear that the party decides on the coalition agreement and the personnel table in a ballot. But a modern government should reflect the reality of life in Germany – women and men, West and East, with and without a migration background, young and old.


Expensive shock with electricity and gas: Greens want energy support for the poor in winter
Photo: BILD

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