DÜSSELDORF (dpa-AFX) – Before the federal-state talks about the federal government’s planned third relief package, North Rhine-Westphalia’s Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) calls for a fairer distribution of the costs. In an interview with the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung”, Wüst said that the burden had to be shared fairly “so that we as countries are still able to meet our responsibilities”.
“We have to ensure, for example, that kindergartens and universities continue to run. In addition to the state share in the federal relief package, a follow-up solution for refugee financing is also open, as is the fundamental question of whether the federal government has to pay the housing benefit in full,” said Wüst, who leads a black-green government in North Rhine-Westphalia.
A successor regulation for the 9-euro ticket can only be found “if the long-standing question of financing regional rail transport has been reliably clarified”. To do this, the so-called regionalization funds would have to be increased. “All countries agree on that.” In addition, hospital financing must be reorganized.
At the beginning of September, the traffic light coalition of SPD, Greens and FDP decided on a third relief package worth 65 billion euros for 2022 and 2023, in which the federal states should also participate. On September 28th, the prime ministers want to talk to Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) about financing./lic/DP/he