By Michael Sauerbier
Big mouth, nothing behind! All parties are calling for a cap on RBB salaries in Brandenburg’s state parliament on Thursday. But then only the Free Voters voted for it.
Peter Vida (39) burst the collar. In the state parliament, the Free Voters boss denounced “unbridled excesses” at the Berlin scandal broadcaster, millions in fees for lawyers, control failure. SPD faction Vice Ludwig Scheetz (36) castigated “waste and mismanagement in the RBB boardroom”.
RBB boss Katrin Vernau (49, right) collects almost as much as her fired predecessor Patricia Schlesinger (61, left) with 300,000 euros. Photo: Britta Pedersen/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa/Thomas Spikermann
Dennis Hohloch (33, AfD) complained about the luxury salary of the new station boss: 300,000 euros per year. Barbara Richstein (57, CDU) demanded: The RBB director should not earn more than the top politicians.
Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke (61, SPD) gets around 200,000 euros. Petra Budke (63, Greens) wanted to adjust the RBB income to the public service.
That is exactly what the state parliament should then decide. But only the Free Voters voted in favor, SPD, AfD, CDU and Greens against. Reason: One wants to wait for the Berlin election and the test reports from lawyers, audit offices and the public prosecutor’s office. That may last until the summer…
Peter Vida (39, Free Voters): “The contributors don’t want to wait any longer for broadcasting reforms” Photo: picture alliance/dpa/dpa-Zentralbild
Free voter boss Vida: “We’ll see: First produce headlines – and then nothing happens! We should wait, wait, wait. But the contributors don’t want to wait. Trust in public broadcasting is dwindling every day with every new disclosure.”
Now it came out that the RBB bosses have treated themselves to substantial salary increases for the temporary ARD chairmanship. Months before the RBB took over the management of the station network! The ARD said on Thursday: “Additionals in this form and amount are not known to us from the ARD.”
The heads of Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB) treated themselves to extra salary bonuses for their year as ARD chairman Photo: picture alliance/dpa