Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) – The opposition FDP in the North Rhine-Westphalia state parliament has accused the black-green state government, which has been in office since the summer, of taking a zigzag course and being unreliable when it comes to crisis aid. The FDP reserves the right to file a constitutional complaint, said FDP parliamentary group leader Henning Höne on Tuesday in the state parliament’s budget debate. In the past few weeks, the government has missed all opportunities to launch crisis aid in a constitutionally secure manner.
The resolution of a financial emergency is inadequate, the associated softening of the debt brake is on a shaky foundation, and the planned special fund for crisis management comes from debt. The government has made no effort to look for potential savings in the regular budget.
Höne massively criticized Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) and called him a “fair-weather Prime Minister”. The wust, who has been in office since the end of October 2021, can “only do freestyle, but no obligation”. Only photo ops were not enough to govern. “If it goes into the engine room, pinch.”
After several U-turns, the state parliament on Tuesday, with the majority of the government factions, wanted to launch a 1.6 billion euro aid package to cushion the economic consequences of the Ukraine war, which was launched just a few days ago. The funds are the first tranche of a debt-financed “crisis management special fund” of up to five billion euros.
Contrary to what was planned, the crisis aid will only flow in NRW from 2023. Black-Green had withdrawn an originally planned supplementary budget for this year at short notice on Monday after unexpected additional tax revenue of around 1.2 billion euros had appeared over the weekend. The opposition spoke of chaos.
