North Rhine-Westphalia's Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) expects a "strong solution" for the controversial financing issues worth billions from the federal-state talks with Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) on Wednesday.
Get out of the blockade
"The goal now must be that we can get out of the blockade caused by the federal government at the federal-state meeting on November 2nd and finally be able to show results," Wüst told the "Welt am Sonntag". "We need a strong solution for the relief package, public transport, housing benefit, refugee costs and hospital financing."
If the federal government does not meet its obligations, for example with the funds for local public transport, "there is inevitably a risk of bus and train lines being canceled, especially in the area," said the CDU politician. "That would be another attack, especially on rural areas, and a step backwards in climate protection."
The federal and state governments would have to send a joint signal of determination so that people would know “where they will be relieved and at which point it will be how much more expensive”. Companies should also be able to plan and the municipalities should be given financial security. "The time for the federal government to go it alone must be over," said Wüst.
Federal-state meeting on Wednesday
The heads of government of the federal states will meet with Chancellor Scholz in Berlin on Wednesday. In the view of the NRW state government, an agreement between the federal and state governments was still a long way off, especially with regard to the financing of the expanded housing benefit and the successor to the 9-euro ticket and the refugee costs.
North Rhine-Westphalia is against splitting the costs of the third relief package in half between the federal and state governments, amounting to around 65 billion euros. The state government sees the main burden on the federal government and calls for a split of 75 to 25.
At the beginning of October, the federal and state governments had failed to reach an agreement in the dispute over the financing of the billion-euro relief measures in the energy crisis. "The meeting with the federal government at the beginning of October was a disaster," said Wüst. "The federal government did not approach the states one millimeter."
