Early parliamentary elections will be held in Germany on Sunday (23 February 2). Surveys suggest that it will be difficult to compile a coalition. The parties try to reach as many voters as possible in the campaign, but poor people feel they ignore or even stigmatize them. TASR informs about this on the basis of AFP report.
More than 13 million people in Germany, approximately one of seven, live below the poverty line. If people on the verge of poverty and threatened poverty are also added to them, this number will climb to more than 17 million people in official statistics.
The worst are the lonely mothers, the long -term unemployed and increasingly pensioners, whose number in a rapidly aging country is increasing, which is even more burdened by the pension system.
Last year, the Council of Europe commissioned the German government to address the poverty rate it considers to be “disproportionate wealth of the country”.
The story of a pensioner is not the only one
However, pensioner Renate Krause told AFP that the parties in the campaign “ignored” this problem and focused on topics such as immigration and public security. At the age of 71, he barely survives with revenues that are more than 300 euros below the poverty line. He cannot even afford to visit his grandchildren, as they are scattered around the country, and he considers coffee as a luxury. She is most sorry for the attitude of the center -right CDU, which is a leader in surveys. According to her, this party considers poverty only as a “personal problem” that the government should not deal with.
The campaign has stunned a heated discussion about the German “civil contribution”, a social benefit of EUR 563 for a lone person, usually for the long -term unemployed or people with low income. Approximately 5.5 million people are entitled to it. The extreme right -wing and anti -immigration Party of the AfD in the campaign stressed that 60 % of applicants for this benefit is originally from abroad, including many Ukrainian war refugees.
CDU leader Friedrich Merz, who should become a future office, threatened to cancel the contribution for people who are considered able to work. Some consider this approach to be the stigmatization of the unemployed.
“Do not fight against poverty struggles against the poor,” said politicians Michael David, who is working to alleviate poverty in the Protestant Charitable Charity Organization of Diaconia. However, more and more pensioners are at risk of poverty. 8 million.
