BERLIN/ERFURT (dpa-AFX) – The Federal Government Commissioner for East Germany, Carsten Schneider, has warned against exploiting the Monday demonstrations for protests against high energy prices. “The Monday demonstrations are the symbol of the peaceful revolution and the East Germans’ fight for freedom and democracy,” said the SPD politician from Thuringia to the “Wirtschaftswoche”. Attempts from various political directions to link them to the problems arising from Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine amounted to “a disparagement of the merits of the East Germans in 1989”.
Recently, Sören Pellmann, the left-wing faction’s East German representative in the Bundestag, announced actions against rising energy prices and the gas levy on Mondays. In return, Thuringia’s Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow (left) warned his party against making common cause with right-wing extremists at such demonstrations. Pellmann had announced the start of the demonstrations for Monday, September 5th in Leipzig.
Schneider told the “Wirtschaftswoche” that the energy price increases caused by the Russian war are a challenge for the whole country. At the same time, he pointed out that the income and wealth situation in East Germany still differs from that in West Germany. The federal government’s existing relief package “will take effect in the coming weeks,” said the Minister of State in the Federal Chancellery.
However, it is clear that further relief is needed “especially for people with lower and middle incomes in order to get through the crisis well”. The federal government is currently working on this.
The Federal Chairman of the Left, Martin Schirdewan, told the broadcaster Welt that his party sees itself as a guarantor that the protest will be democratic. “We are working to ensure that society stays together by wanting to ensure a hot autumn and calling for it – and by bringing the democratically legitimate protest against the anti-social policy of the federal government onto the streets.” They don’t want anything to do with right-wing extremists. “Bodo Ramelow is absolutely right when he says that you don’t play with Nazis.”
The Linke boss criticized the policy of the traffic light coalition – especially on the subject of relief. “And if they continue like this, we’re going to face a cold winter. And to prevent that, we’re working on a hot autumn.”/rot/DP/nas