GERMANY: Welfare Cuts & more – 11th July 2024

Hallo from BA! This is the Rorshok Germany Update from the 11th of July twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Germany.

The government started this week by announcing rigorous changes to the social welfare and unemployment benefit system. So, the government turned its coat, as at the beginning of the legislative period it reformed the unemployment benefit system to make it more humane and get rid of some of the very strict requirements beneficiaries have to fulfill.

This reform will be a step back since the executive’s plans include strict sanctions for people who don’t want to take the job that the job center offered them. Unemployed people go to state institutions, where they are offered jobs and they have to accept them. They will also receive benefits for a shorter period of time (before it was a year, now it’s six months). Also, before receiving welfare, they have to use their own assets, if they have any. Up to three hours of commute will now be deemed acceptable. According to the government’s spokesperson, these reforms are supposed to “stimulate the economy.” Opponents of the reform say that raising the benefits would do a much better job at stimulating the economy, as all the money would be spent and thus help Germany’s struggling domestic economy.

Staying with the budget talks and cuts for the coming year, the heads of the Social Democratic Party, or SPD, have shut down a party-internal referendum. The youth organization, in coordination with left-leaning members and the older generation of the party, had called for a referendum on the party’s stance on the proposed budget for twenty twenty-five. They heavily criticized the proposed 8 Billion Euro cuts across all sectors and demanded more investments. The youth and the older generation wanted to organize a referendum because they were against the proposed budget and wanted the whole party to be against it as well. However, the party leadership didn’t allow the referendum to go forward, citing that the delegates in the national parliament should be free to vote their conscience. While this argument is solid legally, it lacks any foundation in the real world; as the parliamentarians in the SPD have always voted the way party leadership wanted them to vote.

On a related note, many youth organizations across the whole country have demanded changes to the proposed budget and reforms of the debt brake, which stops Germany from taking on new loans, and thus halts investments. Some youth organizations, such as Fridays For Future, and the party youth of The Greens and the SPD, have signed an open letter. They wrote that, contrary to the government, they understood that the debt brake was a brake on investment and the future and that with it there wouldn’t be a future-proof budget.

Moving on, even though Germany lost in the quarter-final against Spain in the Euro twenty twenty-four, all eyes are on Demiral, a striker of the Turkish national team, who made the fascist wolf salute while celebrating a goal. the Union of European Football Associations (or UEFA), banned him from participating in the next two games. The player wasn’t the only one showing the salute, as big groups of fans made the gesture before entering the stadium and during the match. The wolf salute is a symbol of many Turkish ultra-nationalists and fascists, but is not illegal in Germany. Turkish President Erdogan was present during the match against the Dutch team. Following statements of German politicians, he promptly summoned the German ambassador. Germany replied by summoning the Turkish ambassador. Inside Germany, the debate about the wolf salute continues.

More about the Euro twenty twenty-four , as the Society of Freedom Rights, an NGO working with homeless people, has sued several German cities hosting games of the tournament for their treatment of people living in the streets during the event. This started in the city of Hamburg, where the NGO said that the police have been harassing homeless people even more. The suit is seen as an important case for the rights of homeless people as it attacks the common practice of police forcing them out of public areas. A spokesperson for the NGO said that the law is clear and removing someone from a public space is only legal if the expelled person poses a security threat. According to the NGO, the police and city administrators are using expulsions as a way to illegally clean the streets.

In other news Sabine Döring, the former undersecretary of state in the Ministry of Education, is now suing her former employer. She was let go for allegedly writing an EMail suggesting cutting funding to educators, professors, and university staff who supported the pro-Palestinian student movement. However, she will not be allowed to make any statements regarding the affair because state employees are bound by a non-disclosure agreement that can only be lifted on the consent of their employers. So she can sue but he can't testify to the EMail affair as long as the ministry doesn't allow it. Even though the minister of Education promised full disclosure and a public investigation into the allegations against her ministry, she won’t lift the non-disclosure agreement of Sabine Döring.

Following the big demonstrations of farmers last winter against the cutting of subsidies for diesel used in farming, the government has now proposed laws and measures to alleviate the farmers’ situation. These new measures include tax breaks and incentives. A point of contention was that the demonstrations were mostly organized by big farming corporations. The government brought back subsidies for diesel, and is trying to incentivize farming corporations to do more for the environment voluntarily while giving them tax breaks.

Speaking of legislation, a new law allows tenants to install small electricity generators on their balconies without the consent from their landlords. In the last year the balcony generators have become more popular. They are either small wind turbines or solar panels. However, until Monday the 8th, landlords had to give their consent before installation.

The government faced criticism over a proposal that Christian Lindner, the minister of finance, made on Monday the 8th: Lindner proposed that, in order to make Germany more attractive for foreigners, skilled workers would get a reduced income tax in their first three years. According to this proposal, in their first year, immigrating skilled workers would get a tax rebate of 30%, then 20% in the second year, and 10% in the third year. The idea drew criticism both from the right, saying that this would be “discrimination of in-landers”, and from the left, as this would only apply to people who were able to use legal routes for their immigration, not to asylum seekers. The idea is one of many small steps Germany is taking to make the country more attractive, especially to young immigrants. However, there is a huge issue regarding immigration, and that is xenophobia.

Starting next year, the Deutschlandticket will become more expensive. It was launched amidst the energy shortage and price spikes following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. It used to cost nine euros. The Deutschlandticket allows travelers to use all regional and municipal transportation across the whole country for a month. Currently, it costs forty-nine euros, but following the announcement of the minister of traffic on Wednesday the 10th, it will cost more next year.

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

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