CDU general secretary calls for more urgency in government reforms

CDU General Secretary Franziska Hoppermann has called for more urgency in the federal government's reform plans. “There are still too many resolutions of the coalition committee outstanding,” Hoppermann told the Rheinische Post. For example, when it comes to pension reform, a bill must be introduced quickly because the federal budget can hardly cope with the enormous amount of pension subsidies. "The reforms that are now pending are absolutely necessary."

The CDU general secretary took the Social Democrats to task. “I also expect seriousness from the SPD,” she said. With a view to the state elections in Saxony-Anhalt, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin, the federal government is at a turning point. The federal government must make it clear to people that it is not implementing the changes out of ill will, but rather to make the social security systems sustainable.

Dispute over care reform

At the weekend, the conflict over the planned reforms between the government parties flared up again. Leading SPD politicians such as deputy party leader Alexander Schweitzer and Lower Saxony's Prime Minister Olaf Lies called for changes to the reform course. SPD parliamentary group leader Matthias Miersch threatened not to agree to Health Minister Carsten Linnemann's (CDU) planned care reform and, among other things, called for a care cap.

Linnemann has already rejected a care cover and put the conflict into perspective. "That's nothing unusual," he said. At the same time, he admitted: "You should do something like that behind closed doors and not in front of the door." North Rhine-Westphalia's Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst made similar comments on ZDF. Meanwhile, Union parliamentary group vice-president Albert Stegemann (CDU) accused the coalition partner SPD in the Rheinische Post of not helping to solve problems.