review
- Deputies come to the Bundestag last meeting before summer holidays together.
- There are a number of important votes on the agenda, including: The government’s health savings package and the so-called heating law.
- The left faction has one Current hour on the topic of sick leave asked.
- If health insurance reform and the heating law are passed, as expected, this will also be discussed. The Federal Council still uses it today.
- In addition to our own research, we also use materials from dpa, AFP, Reuters, epd and KNA for reporting.
Important contributions
Bundestag votes for new heating law
The majority of deputies voted for the new law on modernization of buildings. By roll call vote 322 deputies voted for the bill, 272 voted against.
The ruling factions of the Union and the SPD had previously expressed their approval. The opposition parties AfD, Greens and Left wanted to vote against it.
Read more about this here:
SOP calls for avoiding more restrictive diets
SPD MP Johannes Fechner calls the end to the increase in diets “the right signal.” However, the current regulation is correct in itself, according to which Diets are rising, as are wages. He wants to stick to this mechanism.
In response to the accusation that the Bundestag is too expensive, he referred to the decision of the traffic light coalition. new voting rights against: This ensures that Parliament 100 seats less has. This corresponds to savings of 600 million euros over the election period.
Deputies discussed the refusal to increase the diet
One more item on the last day of the meeting: proposed by the Union and the SPD Refusal of annual salary increases for deputies. The AfD also wants to support this, just like the one who Parliamentary Managing Director of the AfD parliamentary group Stefan Brandner: announced.
At the same time, he referred to his group’s proposal and called on the coalition parties to join him. The AfD is calling for this The waiver also applies to members of the federal government and secretaries of state. – and urged them to do so voluntarily, since they were responsible “for the catastrophic conditions in Germany.”
SPD politician for continuing the “Culture makes you strong” program, criticism from the AfD
Martin Rabanus of the SPD spoke in favor of continuing the “Culture Makes You Strong” program. According to him, the program reaches children and young people who would otherwise not have the opportunity to benefit from cultural education content. “This program must continue, and this program will continue.”
Gereon Bollmann of the AfD parliamentary group said the program compromises the state’s duty to remain neutral. According to him, the provision of money to NGOs was aimed at providing “one-sided indoctrination.”
Sven Lehmann of the Greens expressed concern about further cuts in the cultural sector. The Youth Culture Pass has been buried and the Reading Start program is now set to follow. This shouldn’t happen, Lehmann said.
Fewer subsidies for prostheses, partial sick leave and insurance premiums: compulsory health insurance reform
The debate in the Bundestag on the reform of compulsory health insurance was emotional and characterized by serious accusations from the opposition against the federal government: the financing of health insurance companies would be eased only for a short time, but the insured would be burdened forever. The law, approved by coalition votes, provides that some benefits will no longer apply, contributions will rise for some people, and some sick leave may be paid.
You can read an overview of what will change for insured persons here:
Discussion on cultural and sports policy
While deputies vote on the heating law, a 30-minute meeting takes place Discussion about culture and sports, what the left faction demanded. The left wants to promote culture and sports enshrine this as a state goal in the Basic Law.
CDU MP Michael Jose argues against this: “Constitutions are not wish lists. “Constitutions are ground rules,” he said. The enshrinement of environmental and animal protection as national objectives in the Basic Law in 1994 and 2002 was preceded by “thorough debate”. This is not the case here; Therefore, left-wing proposals on culture and sports are “oppositional symbolic politics.”
“Culture will not become strong thanks to the new article of the constitution”– said Jose. He mentioned specific cultural and sports programs, as well as the general commitment of dedicated citizens.
Deputies voted for the law on modernization of buildings
The debate on the new building modernization law is over. Voting is now underway. Deputies have 20 minutes to vote.
CDU MP Rover wants to put an end to “Khabekov’s heating.”
Lars Rover (CDU) promotes amendment to heating law as a pragmatic solution EU requirements translated into national legislation and the “Habeckian mess of the heating system” would be brought to an end, as he described the law, which was repeatedly associated with former Union Minister of Economy Robert Habeck. The boiler room is being “depoliticized.”
Rover rejected criticism of the increased costs: “subject to certain criteria” they would be limited. At the same time, he brought the law into line with EU requirements: the “Brussels Parliament” should not “continue to introduce more rules and bureaucracy.”
Rover’s speech is the last in the debate, and voting now begins.
Glöckner rejects Greens’ criticism of Buildings Retrofit Act
SPD MP Angelika Glöckner believes that the new building modernization law is the right step. The traffic light government’s heating law was “not accepted at all” by citizens.
She rejected criticism from Greens MP Julia Verlinden that coalition members would no longer be allowed to use the word “climate protection” if the legislation was passed this way. “Of course we still use the word climate protection.” Because we all want to reach our climate goals.”
AfD: “Heating hammer in a new look”
AfD MP Malte Kaufmann compares the black-red heating law with the coalition’s previous traffic light law. “What we have today is (…) the heating hammer 2.0, only in a new form”Kaufman said. The relaxed provisions in the amendment to the law are also one of the “Management in the private sphere.” His group is calling for the heating law to be repealed without replacement and therefore no requirements for CO₂ emissions from heating systems.
Leftists complain about costs of heating law
After harsh criticism from the greens, the left also joined in. The “law of catastrophe” will lead to a “dramatic cost trap.” warns MP Jörg Cézanne. Biogas is already 25 percent more expensive than natural gas, and prices will continue to rise. “False freedom in the boiler room” will especially burden residentswho would not have a free choice in the form of heating, but would have to contribute a significant amount in additional costs.
Cézanne accused the government of “madness” as she pointed to the costs of expanding grids and solar and wind power plants. they do not have the ability to respond to rising costs through their own legislation.
Verlinden: “None of you need to use the word climate protection anymore.”
Green politician Julia Verlinden has criticized the new building retrofit law as costly and bad for the climate. Despite high energy prices, the coalition continued to stick to “its crazy plan” to install new oil and gas heating systems. “This expensive heating law is the worst economic policy of all time,” she said.
The law is bad for the climate. “None of you need to use the word climate protection anymore,” Verlinden said. Anyone who now decides that fossil fuels can be burned after 2045 is “simultaneously burning the future of all children and grandchildren.”
Debate begins on the Building Energy Law
The Bundestag moves on to the next item on the agenda: Heating law debate. The debate will be opened by SPD MP Helmut Kleebank. After a few sentences, he is interrupted by the Greens’ intervention, which he resolves. The crux of the question: how can there be a law allowing heating with oil and gas even after 2045? ensure climate targets are met?
Kleebanks’ response: The use of gas and oil for heating cannot remain at current levels. and the new law will also ensure this. SPD politician talks about step-by-step process Increasing the mandatory share of biofuels. There is uncertainty about how successful this will be, but: “Freedom is always associated with uncertainty.”
Several countries want to convene a mediation committee
Before the vote on health insurance reform in the Federal Council, several federal states expressed serious doubts. representatives Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony-Anhalt, Bremen, Hamburg and Saarland appealed to the conciliation commission.
States particularly criticized savings at the expense of hospitals and municipalities. Saarland Prime Minister Anke Rölinger (SPD) warned that, according to the provisions of the law,… Hospitals can no longer “easily meet their responsibilities of care.”.
Rehlinger noted, among other things, that tariff increases for health sector workers should no longer be fully refinanced. This puts hospitals under “enormous financial difficulties” and “ultimately jeopardizes the supply situation.”
Six states together appear in the Federal Council. 22 votes. For an absolute majority to convene the Mediation Committee minimum 35 votes required.
Deputies criticized errors during voting of State Bills in the Social Committee
Opposition MPs agreed Chairman of the Bundestag Labor and Social Affairs Committee Bernd Rützel (SPD), is accused of deliberately misrecording votes during a committee meeting he chaired on Wednesday. A proposal was voted to remove compulsory health insurance reform from the agenda.The parliamentary managing director of the Green Party, Irene Mihalic, told dpa. Accordingly, the majority of deputies voted for this proposal. However, the chairman ignored this and later put the austerity package to a vote anyway. By that time, according to opposition deputies, more deputies from the Union and the SPD had come into the hall, so the vote on compulsory health insurance reform passed in favor of the coalition.
Pascal Meiser, who attended the meeting from the left faction, also said that the voting results were ignored by the chairman. “I have never encountered such a scandalous event in any committee in the many years that I have been a member of the German Bundestag,” he said. Ruetzel’s office did not respond to a request for information about the charges.
The incident did not affect the Bundestag’s adoption of the compulsory health insurance reform. The Health Committee oversaw this project.
`; }})); e.target.setAdManager(adManager); }); Up