The coalition committee must concentrate "on the bottom 30 to 40 percent of the population," Schneider said. He must also "resist all attempts to cap prices. That would be a bottomless pit." Specifically, it must be about increasing basic security by 200 euros a month and an urgent increase in those entitled to housing benefit from just over 600,000 to two to three million people, said Schneider. "Then we would actually have reached the bottom groups."
The president of the social association VdK, Verena Bentele, told the RND newspapers that the upcoming relief package must go to those "who no longer know how to pay their energy bills or their groceries". In particular, she called for a 300-euro energy allowance for pensioners. But a permanent heating cost subsidy for low-income households or a "heat quota at a fair price" are also sensible measures.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the left-wing parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Amira Mohamed Ali, demanded in the newspapers of the Funke media group that VAT on staple foods must be "temporarily set to zero so that food prices fall again". It is "simply unbearable that more and more people in our country have to worry about how to heat their homes and put food on the table". Mohamed Ali also insisted on an electricity and gas price cap for private households and a stop to the "socially deeply unfair gas levy".
After weeks of discussion, the traffic light parties want to agree on another package with relief for citizens because of the high energy and living costs on Saturday. To this end, the coalition committee will meet in the Chancellery in the morning. The wishes of the SPD, Greens and FDP differed significantly until the end.
If the "traffic light" puts together a relief package at the weekend, it would be the third this year. The measures taken so far add up to a good 30 billion euros. This included, among other things, the fuel discount and the nine-euro ticket in June, July and August, an increase in the commuter flat-rate, the energy price flat-rate of EUR 300 for employees subject to tax and various other special payments.
