BERLIN, March 29 (Xinhua) -- German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD) has rejected a proposal from fellow party members to create a "basic solidarity income" for long-term unemployed Germans on Thursday.
Scholz defended the current "Hartz IV" benefit system while expressing sympathy with the desire among proponents of a "basic solidarity income" to "significantly reduce long-term unemployment." Earlier, Berlin Mayor-Governor Michael Mueller (SPD) had called for the creation of a so-called social labor market where Germans who struggled to find employment could earn tax-financed income of 1,200 euros per month with work for communal governments.
The proposal was supported by the president of the Federation of German Trade Unions (DGB) Reiner Hoffman and Labor minister Hubertus Heil (SPD). "This is a necessary debate that we need to engage in," Heil told the newspaper "BILD".
However, employer representatives and communal governments largely rebuffed the idea of a social labor market as inappropriate in times of record low unemployment figures. Speaking to the newspaper "WELT", Karl-Josef Laumann, president of the Christian Democratic Union's (CDU) employer committee, said that "Hartz IV does not need to be reformed or eliminated and it also does not need a new name."
Similarly, Ingo Kramer, president of the Confederation of German Employers' Associations (BDA), rejected the new initiative. "The basic idea of a basic solidarity income is nothing other than to massively create artificial employment which would not persist in entrepreneurial competition," Kramer said.
By contrast, the Left party (Linke) welcomed the debate in the SPD over a reform of the existing Hartz IV system provoked by Mueller's comments. Speaking to the public broadcaster "ZDF" on Thursday, Left party leader Gesine Loetzsch urged the SPD to show "more self-confidence" in the matter and make a "concrete proposal" for a new system.
