BERLIN (dpa-AFX) – According to a report in the “Rheinische Post”, Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) accuses the SPD of blocking the Infrastructure Future Act to accelerate large construction projects. As the paper reports, citing participants, the CDU leader was displeased at the Union parliamentary group meeting in the afternoon that the law has been in the Bundestag for six months. “And I have to say now: My patience is now at an end, even with the Social Democrats,” the newspaper quoted him as saying.
It is unacceptable that the law will not be passed because the Social Democrats have linked it to the Nature Conservation Area Requirements Act. According to the report, Merz demanded: “This law must be included in the Federal Law Gazette before the parliamentary summer break so that we can really start building in Germany.”
The Federal Ministry of Transport had also recently expressed its anger that the law had not yet been passed and the SPD wanted to combine it with a law on nature conservation areas. With the infrastructure law, the coalition actually wants to create the basis so that planning and construction can take place more quickly and money from the special fund arrives more quickly.
Consultations with social partners in the Chancellery
This Wednesday, the leaders of the coalition in the Chancellery will discuss with employers and unions the extent to which there is a common view of the need for reform in Germany. This should first and foremost be about the labor market, but also about social reforms, taxes and reducing bureaucracy.
“I don’t have too many hopes, but dialogue is important. I want to get as many things started as possible through dialogue and, if possible, even through consensus,” said Merz at the Union parliamentary group meeting, according to the “Rheinische Post”. The Chancellor literally said: “It’s a conversation, it’s an exchange of opinions, there will be no results, no decision papers. But I hope that at least a certain amount of knowledge will be gained from it, what actually carries us together.”/shy/DP/men