Poverty row divides German conservatives

BERLIN: The new secretary general of Germany’s conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) yesterday chided party member Jens Spahn, incoming health minister, after a media backlash over his comments on poverty.

Poverty and abortion were the latest fault lines to emerge in the new government, hours before Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives and the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) signed their coalition agreement yesterday. The government, a rerun of the “grand coalition” that has ruled since 2013, takes office tomorrow.

Spahn, also a member of the CDU, told the Berliner Morgenpost newspaper those who received unemployment aid under financial reforms known as Hartz IV were not poor because their basic needs were met.

Secretary general Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said Spahn was correct to say Germany’s social system was reviewed regularly to ensure basic needs were met, but said it was impolitic for politicians with higher incomes to tell welfare recipients how they should feel.

Kramp-Karrenbauer said the government would focus on reducing chronic unemployment and preventing people from needing the Hartz IV assistance.

“I always warn that people like he and I, who earn well, should not try to explain how people who receive Hartz IV should feel,” she said.

Incoming Labour Minister Hubertus Heil of the SPD said: “Our country needs social cohesion, not cold-hearted debates about statistics.”

SPD secretary-general Lars Klingbeil said the coalition partners specifically agreed to tackle the issue of old-age and childhood poverty in their agreement.

“Mr Spahn apparently didn’t pay enough attention during the coalition negotiations,” he said. “We talked explicitly about the fact that there are people in our country who are not doing well.”