The Thuringian CDU leader Mario Voigt has spoken out against paying citizens’ allowance to Ukrainian refugees. “I think that is a completely wrong incentive. We need to get people into work instead of supporting them unconditionally,” Voigt told the “Tagesspiegel”. It was “a serious political mistake” that Ukrainians receive citizens’ allowance.
“People feel it is unfair that Ukrainians have the same rights as Germans without ever having contributed anything to the country,” Voigt continued. “Our model of life in Germany is not full state support, but work.” This must be made clearer – not just to Ukrainians, but to everyone who wants to live here.
Several interior ministers recently called for an end to the payment of citizen’s allowance to war refugees from Ukraine. Instead, they want to ensure that only lower payments are made under the Asylum Seekers’ Benefits Act. Brandenburg’s interior minister and IMK chairman Michael Stübgen (CDU) argued that citizen’s allowance had become a “brake on taking up work”. He received support from Baden-Württemberg. Similar demands were made by the FDP parliamentary group. The federal government, however, rejects this. The German Association of Cities also rejects the proposal.
Since June 2022, refugees from Ukraine have been able to receive basic social security, i.e. the same benefits as recipients of citizen’s allowance (then still Hartz IV). One of the reasons given for this was that they are immediately entitled to a residence permit and do not have to wait for a decision like asylum seekers. On Thursday, the heads of government of the federal states are to meet with Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) in Berlin.
According to Voigt, the zeitgeist in the country has changed: “The pendulum is swinging back. The time of the green lifestyle is over. It does not fit with the crises of our time. As the Union, we would do well to be bolder in formulating our conservative values and the modern answers to them. Looking at East Germany, it is obvious that we are the only ones who can stand up to the AfD. All other parties are no longer accepted here – the traffic light coalition hardly exists anymore.”
When asked whether he considered the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) to be extremist, he gave an evasive answer: “I consider the BSW to be a big black box. There are hardly any members or direct candidates. But what I hear from the BSW on the topics of migration and education here in Thuringia is closer to reality than what I hear from the Greens, the Left or the SPD.”
