Kretschmer: "The citizen's income is an incentive not to work".

From Henriette Kuhn

Dresden. Saxony's Minister President Michael Kretschmer (CDU) has described the current economic crisis in Germany as "self-inflicted". The main reason for this situation is the shortage of production capacities for electricity, said the CDU deputy chairman in the "Deutschlandfunk's "Interview of the Week. "Now we have the salad," Kretschmer said.

Instead of talking about capacity expansions, a new pay-as-you-go system is being discussed, the Minister President said, referring to the discussion about an industrial electricity price. Kretschmer said that 100 billion euros would be needed to expand the power grids. This will be felt in the price of electricity, he said. "Then we will not have the chance to have low electricity costs."

In the interview, however, Kretschmer called for a consensus across parties and societies on energy supply. "We have to restart this energy transition," he said. If there was agreement that electricity for industry should cost a maximum of six cents per kilowatt hour, he said, we would get there. However, Kretschmer stressed that we should not create a social pay-as-you-go system. It is not acceptable to cause problems by shutting down capacities and ultimately bleed the population by paying a levy for a few.

Countries demand bridge electricity price for industry

This week, the state premiers unanimously spoke out in favor of a temporary bridge electricity price to ease the burden on energy-intensive companies. In the question of a state-subsidized industrial electricity price, the states are thus increasing the pressure on Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD). The latter has so far avoided taking a clear position on this and instead called for a debate on financing first.

• German minister presidents in favor of industrial electricity price
• Industrial electricity price: How many companies in Saxony would benefit?

Saxony's Minister President Kretschmer had recently repeatedly voiced criticism of an industrial electricity price. Instead of subsidies and bureaucracy, he argued, a higher energy supply was needed to lower prices. Saxony's Environment and Energy Minister Wolfram Günther (Greens) and Economics Minister Martin Dulig (SPD) recently welcomed the push for such an electricity price.

"Citizens are disappointed".

In the "Interview of the Week" with Deutschlandfunk radio, Kretschmer also commented on the citizen's income introduced by the German government. In his view, this is wrong. It was linked to the incentive not to work. He called the discussion about a four-day week "absurd. At least 40 hours had to be worked in order to secure prosperity, he said.

Kretschmer also commented on the current survey results in Saxony. In the latest Insa survey commissioned by the three major Saxon newspapers the AfD came in at 35 percent, with the CDU in second place with 29 percent. Kretschmer sees federal policy as the main cause here. "Citizens are disappointed and absolutely dissatisfied with the issue of migration policy, with the issue of building energy law." He also cited excessive bureaucracy as an example. "We have to fight for this democracy, from the middle of society. And that can only be done by removing the breeding ground for this protest," Kretschmer said.