New fuel discount: Nothing learned

Even Veronika Grimm is angry – and calls the federal government’s new fuel discount “cynical”. The economy is right. The quick decision to relieve the burden on drivers is born less from the insight to relieve people than from helplessness. How else can one understand that, immediately before the other two important elections - the state election in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and the House of Representatives election in Berlin - the Union and the SPD are trying to suggest to the country: We care about the well-being of the people.

If the federal government did that, it would not have reloaded the fuel discount from the summer, but would have tried to relieve the burden on those people who really need it: low earners and recipients of citizens' benefit. Regardless of whether they (have to) drive a car or not. Public transport prices have also skyrocketed in many places, making mobility a cost factor. One that – alongside other increased costs of living – also determines exclusion from social life.

In the past few weeks, various suggestions have been circulating about how to deal with the high fuel prices: an excess profit tax for oil companies, for example, or direct aid for low-income earners. The federal government would have had enough time to examine all of this - and decide on relief that would reach the right people. There is no mention of climate protection yet.

The taz is an independent, left-wing and opinionated daily newspaper. We have been arguing in our comments, essays and debate texts since the taz was founded in 1979. We often cannot and do not want to agree on an opinion. That's why you'll find some completely opposing positions here - all part of the very broad left-wing spectrum of opinions.

But now the oil companies in particular are benefiting again, as are chief doctors, bank directors and lawyers, who can easily afford higher fuel prices and cruise through cities to their jobs in their SUVs. And so they themselves cause the traffic jams that they like to get upset about. The car is still a status symbol, especially for many high and highest earners. If Merz and Co. wanted to use this discount campaign to influence the election results in their favor, it was a very short thought. Once again.