Gas shortages, inflation and no end in sight? Left faction leader Bartsch calls for the federal government to intervene in the market to protect people without financial leeway. IG Metall boss Hofmann is also calling for a gas price cap – and also for help for companies.
The co-chairman of the left in the Bundestag, Dietmar Bartsch, has accused the federal government of using high prices as a means of saving gas and instead called for state caps on energy costs. “If other EU countries cap gas prices, the question arises as to why the federal government is not doing this,” Bartsch told the “Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland”. The coalition must “in view of the gas shortage put up with the accusation that it is deliberately accepting the extreme increases in gas prices – obviously also with the aim of reducing consumption,” said the left.
Bartsch said it was right to reduce consumption: “But this way it’s deeply anti-social,” criticized the group leader. “The gas price increases are not natural and there is no alternative. If the citizens are not sufficiently relieved at the same time, this is a socially brutal price policy on the backs of gas customers with small and medium-sized budgets,” says Bartsch. “Social division must not become a means of saving gas.”
Instead, market intervention by the federal government is necessary, demanded the left-wing MP: “As in other EU countries, we need a gas price cap in Germany or an appropriate compensation for small and medium-sized incomes in the near future,” he told the “Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland”.
The chairman of the IG Metall, Jörg Hofmann, made a similar statement in the newspapers of the Funke media group and focused his considerations on the companies. He warned of insolvencies in the wake of an impending gas embargo and at the same time called for a gas price cap. “Without Russian gas, companies in the energy-intensive industries can go bankrupt,” he said. According to Hofmann, protective measures such as bridging aid or a renewed suspension of the obligation to file for insolvency must already be considered. Most recently, during the corona pandemic, the obligation to file for insolvency was temporarily suspended.
In the event of a gas embargo, survival is at stake for many companies, said the IG Metall boss. Therefore, he does not think it makes sense to return to the debt brake in the coming year. At the same time, Hofmann still sees room in many companies when it comes to further gas savings – even if the industry had already saved 15 percent in the first few months of the year.
In order to relieve consumers, Hofmann proposes a gas price cap: “A price would be fixed up to a consumption of 8,000 kilowatt hours. In addition, the market price would have an effect again. This would create incentives for energy efficiency, while at the same time small and medium-sized incomes would be relieved .”
