Asking because I’ve seen it mention a few times recently and haven’t really followed the German news.
What is the general situation? Are the polls giving any party favorite? Is it a topic widely discussed around you?
Asking because I’ve seen it mention a few times recently and haven’t really followed the German news.
What is the general situation? Are the polls giving any party favorite? Is it a topic widely discussed around you?
The replacement system for Hartz4 the Bürgergeld has significantly less of the punishment systems. The current situation agreed on the law in summer, but the law was never voted on in parliament. So nowadays the SPD still wants to push them through, but the Greens seem to hold it up. So any sort of new law would have to be passed by the new Bundestag. I believe a lot of people have not realized that, but then again that would be the Greens doing something good, which the press tends to not report on, as the Greens are generally speaking too far to the left for them.
Yesterday, I watched the CCC presentation »38C3 - Eat the Rich! Die Menschen wollen soziale Sicherheit, aber kriegen „Deutschland den Deutsche"«. It doesn’t paint a very good light on Bürgergeld.
Its still better than the old system it may still be shit, but its at least an improvement.
When they wanted social justice they could… vote for it. But they fucking don’t.
It‘s true that the latest sanctions against welfare recipients aren‘t through parliament yet, still it is an astonishing 180 turn by a cabinet that promised to treat the weak more fairly.
Yet, in what is news to me, I stumbled over it when researching the aforementioned sanctions, in March 2024 the Haushaltfinanzierungsgesetz already designed new sanctions, allowing job centres to cut welfare by 100% for 2 months if any type of work is being rejected. I don‘t know how they got away with that, without the constitutional court rejecting it, but here we are.
Of course it‘s not much of a surprise after the media wrongfully claimed that welfare had a major increase while it was only adjusted for inflation, which is required by law.
In the end all trust in the parties that claimed to offer a more humane way of dealing with the most needy is gone and many people like me consider themselves politically homeless.