Union parliamentary group Vice Lange and Left parliamentary group leader Bartsch are pushing for a moratorium in view of the high costs of the crisis. The taxpayers’ association demands replanning of the expansion of the chancellery: “The new building must be stopped in the form”
In the view of the Union, the Left and the Taxpayers’ Association, the expensive extension of the Chancellery is no longer up-to-date against the background of the energy crisis and should be stopped. “The war in Ukraine, the energy crisis and inflation are having a dramatic impact on our country, but the federal government wants to go through with the project as if the world were fine,” said Ulrich Lange (CSU), Union faction leader, of the “Augsburger Allgemeine”. The CSU politician called for a moratorium.
The President of the Taxpayers’ Association, Reiner Holznagel, called on Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the traffic light coalition to abandon the project: “The new building must be stopped in this form,” said Holznagel. “In view of high debts, an impending recession and the coffers that are likely to be tight in the coming decades, doubling the chancellor’s office seems outdated,” he criticizes. “It remains to be seen whether the costs will actually stay within the budget that has now been set,” warned Holznagel.
Left parliamentary group leader Dietmar Bartsch explained that the new building was not up to date. “In the crisis, citizens and companies are often facing economic collapse and the government is pushing ahead with its own projects,” he said, referring to the Chancellery and other expensive construction projects. “In addition, it is a fundamental problem that the federal government continues to increase staff and ministries are bursting at the seams,” he criticized. “Especially in these times, modesty and restraint would be the order of the day,” demanded Lange
According to the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning, the list of federal construction projects includes the environment ministry (EUR 240 million), the foreign office (EUR 128.4 million), the interior ministry (EUR 112 million), the visitor center of the Bundestag (EUR 192 million). ) or the office of Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (278 million). Almost all ministries have branch offices in Bonn, and building there is also expensive. For several years, construction workers have been renovating the Palais Schaumburg at a total cost of at least 17 million euros. The magnificent city villa is the second office of the Federal Chancellery.
Union faction deputy Lange admitted that the expansion of the chancellery in Berlin had already been decided during Angela Merkel’s term of office. However, it was “completely absurd that the current federal government wants to offload responsibility for the extension entirely to the CDU and CSU on the one hand, and on the other hand wants to go through with the previous plans,” he said, adding: “At the time, we had the extension in one stable situation, but now times have changed massively.”
