2024-03-04 05:58:32
The FDP party leader has called for a multi-year moratorium on social spending and subsidies. Now there is heated debate again in the traffic light coalition.
Despite criticism from coalition partners, the FDP is sticking to its position in the debate about social spending. “Anyone who in the future increasingly relies on political arbitrariness and state control when it comes to the minimum wage and repeatedly questions the wage gap requirement when it comes to citizens’ benefits will face clear opposition from the FDP,” said General Secretary Bijan Djir-Sarai to the German Press Agency in Berlin. There will be no further erosion of collective bargaining autonomy with his party “and neither will there be a limitless expansion of the welfare state.”
Prosperity in Germany can only be maintained through a determined growth policy and an economic turnaround. “Their goal must be to permanently relieve the burden on people and companies – in terms of taxes, social security contributions and bureaucracy,” said Djir-Sarai.
Scholz against cuts in social spending
The FDP chairman, Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner, had suggested a multi-year postponement of additional social spending and subsidies as well as new standards in order to be able to invest more money in defense. If we could get by with “what we have” for three years, that would be a big step, he said on ZDF.
Given the economic situation in Germany, Chancellor Olaf Scholz strictly rejected social cuts and the dismantling of workers’ rights. The CDU and CSU wanted to approach pensions by raising the retirement age, others wanted to limit benefits in the event of illness and long-term care, and some wanted to reduce protection against dismissal, said the SPD politician on Monday in Berlin at a dpa editorial conference in chief. “To me, that’s out of the question, to be very clear.” He rules out that a government led by him would do something like that.