With the latest attack, Lindner may have finally buried basic child welfare. But Lisa Paus's clumsiness is also to blame.
Since taking office, Lisa Paus has acted in an uncoordinated, rushed and unprepared manner. Photo: Hans Scherhaufer/epd
That will probably have been it for basic child welfare. After Green Family Minister Lisa Paus and FDP Finance Minister Christian Lindner argued for months last year over how to fund basic child welfare and ultimately agreed on a ridiculous sum of €2.4 billion, euros, the debate on .
How can a Family Minister so randomly sink the “largest social policy reform project at the traffic light”?
Now Lindner is criticizing the 5,000 new jobs that his Green cabinet colleague is demanding for social benefits. She wants to manage with staff the flood of applications expected from 2025, when the basic child welfare benefit comes into force. But Lindner says: No, I won't participate in that. And she justifies her blockade in her liberal-conservative way with the “personal responsibility” that should not be taken away from those affected.
As unsurprising as Lindner's attitude is, it is also questionable. Basic child welfare is an important social policy instrument to lift thousands of children out of poverty and guarantee them a dignified life. This should be worth something to even the most sober finance minister. It is doubtful that he will be able to release funds after the new debacle and his already ambitious austerity plans.
Lisa Paus bears a large part of the blame for this. How can a Family Minister so randomly sink a project that Paus herself calls “the largest traffic light social policy reform project” and that has been signed by her since its inception almost two decades ago? Since she took power, the Green Party has acted in an uncoordinated, hasty and unprepared manner.
She should have been prepared.
He probably has not yet presented a basic child welfare bill that can start the normal parliamentary procedure. “The largest traffic light social policy reform project” deserves to be treated as such. And not let an experienced teacher treat you like a stubborn child because your mother can't protect you.
In the two years of her mandate, the Minister of Family Affairs has barely managed to generate rhetorical enthusiasm for and implement family and social policy issues. The economist has been in politics for 30 years and should have been prepared, especially in financial matters.
According to statements from Paus himself, he remains “optimistic” that basic child support will arrive. Maybe he's even right about that. Only then the family minister could be called something else.