After more than 19 hours of negotiations, the traffic light coalition has agreed on the third relief package.
The federal government’s third relief package is in place. After hours of negotiation, the parties of the traffic light coalition reached an agreement on Sunday morning. “It’s done,” wrote Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP) on Twitter on Sunday morning. And further: “Very good result.” Nothing was initially known about concrete content.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) wants to announce the results of the coalition committee in a press conference on Sunday at 11 a.m. This was announced by the Chancellery on Sunday night while the leaders of the SPD, Greens and FDP were still deliberating.
Negotiations began on Saturday afternoon. A comprehensive package is planned with targeted relief for citizens in the crisis surrounding Russian gas and rising prices. The summit meeting was preceded by weeks of discussions.
In addition to Scholz, Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck (Greens) and Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) took part in the negotiations. Other ministers and the heads of the three parliamentary groups and parties were also gathered in the Chancellery.
In the early evening, a few traffic light politicians caught some fresh air in small groups of talks on the balcony of the Chancellery. Details of the negotiations were not known for the time being. During the night it became clear that the coalition did not want to announce its results until Sunday.
The pressure was enormous in advance – and partly fueled by those involved themselves. Lindner and SPD faction leader Rolf Mützenich had spoken of a “massive package”.
At a cabinet meeting in the middle of the week, Scholz had announced a relief package that was “as tailor-made as possible, as efficient as possible, as targeted as possible”. The parliamentary director of the SPD parliamentary group, Katja Mast, said on Deutschlandfunk on Saturday: “We know that we cannot leave people alone with inflation and rising energy prices.”
Discussions for a relief package included targeted help for pensioners and students, tax cuts and a successor regulation for the 9-euro local transport ticket. So far, the SPD, Greens and FDP had staked out their partly different positions. Scholz had said during the exam in Meseberg near Berlin: “We are working on a large building, and the architecture of this building depends on all the individual parts, which only result in a good construction together.”
From the point of view of the SPD chairman Lars Klingbeil, more precise help than before is necessary. “We have to help those who are really in existential need,” he told the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” (Saturday). This also means that high earners suffer losses, “but they can cope with that”. On the other hand, the fact that the pensioners were not included in the energy flat rate of 300 euros was “a mistake”. “It has to be corrected now.”
So far, the electricity price surcharge to promote renewable energies (EEG surcharge) has already been abolished, there is an energy flat rate of 300 euros for all employees and a one-off payment of 100 to 200 euros for all unemployed, child benefit has been increased once by 100 euros per child, three The fuel price was supported for months up to August, and there was a 9-euro ticket for local public transport for the months of June, July and August.
According to their own statements, trade unions, the left and the AfD may want to call on dissatisfied people to protest in the fall. IG Metall Chairman Jörg Hofmann told the German Press Agency: “It’s about nothing less than the question of whether it will be possible to relieve the burden on citizens effectively and comprehensibly, or whether the growing uncertainty will lead to a break in social cohesion leads.”
