Following the rejection of a relief premium by the Federal Council, the League of Left (Linke) has called for fast financial relief through alternative measures. Speaking to the “Rheinische Post” (Saturday edition), Deputy Parliamentary Group Chair Janine Wissler laid out several demands, including a taxable energy crisis allowance of 150 euros, the reinstatement of the 9-Euro-ticket, and the introduction of a windfall tax for oil and gas corporations. She strongly criticized the handling of the crisis, stating, “When it comes to genuine relief for the people, there is complete conceptual incoherence”.
Wissler referred to the Federal Council’s rejection of the government’s planned €1,000 non-taxable relief premium as a “disaster for the federal government”. Furthermore, she noted that the so-called “relief premium” would likely never have been implemented for most employees at all, adding that wage earners in the public service, which accounts for nearly one-eighth of the employed workforce, would have received the same benefit as those in the low-income sector. The Federal Council had initially halted the tax- and duty-free €1,000 premium for employees that the federal government had put forward on Friday.
