Left faction leader Dietmar Bartsch calls for an end to the gas and electricity price brakes. "The federal government's price brakes on electricity and gas prevent falling prices for consumers," said Bartsch of the German Press Agency. "If the federal government does not want to make further profit records possible for the multinationals, they should lift these brakes."

At the end of last year, the Bundestag and Bundesrat decided on price brakes in order to relieve consumers. With the gas price brake, for example, households and small and medium-sized companies were guaranteed a gross price of 12 cents per kilowatt hour for 80 percent of their previous consumption. The normal contract price should apply to the remaining 20 percent of consumption. The electricity price brake works in a similar way.

Bartsch said the European gas price was lower than it had been in a year and a half. "Hardly any of this goes down with consumers," said the chairman of the left-wing parliamentary group. "On the contrary: advance payments are at a record level." It's similar with electricity. "The traffic light price brakes keep prices up. The taxpayers secure the profits of the corporations with their money."

Bartsch pleaded for a reform of the Federal Cartel Office. The authority must carry out effective price controls and not just observe the market.