German Bundestag, Plenarprotokoll 19/213,
pp. 26852-26853.
Right honorable Herr President. Esteemed colleagues. Dear viewers.
Herr President, permit me to go somewhat further back so as
to better understand the relationship. – As I was writing this speech, I needed
to consider why for long all draft laws and statutory amendments which we had
brought into this sovereign house were rejected by you by mutual agreement,
Stefan Schmidt (Greens): Because they were bad!
and why this again now will occur with the submitted motion;
whereby the impression is manifested: It is you who deeply divide our society
and allow to again revive the political trench wars as they normally occurred
in Germany a hundred years ago. It is you who are not in a position to accept a
really divergent opinion. All which does not correspond to your way of thinking
is evil and ought to be forbidden.
This then goes so far that leftist storm troopers by the name
of “Antifa” fell upon an election stand this past Saturday in Baden-Württemberg
and with 20 persons bludgeoned into the hospital a State legislature candidate
of our party.
Matthias Zimmer (CDU/CSU): Theme!
Thus, the chief of the Federal Constitution Defense will be
changed, or elections of Minister-presidents will be repeated, because the
results do not suit you.
Kai
Whittaker (CSU/CSU): Herr President!
Matthias Zimmer (CDU/CSU): Herr President! What has this to do with the theme?
All of which leaves behind a stale after-taste and casts a
dubious light on your understanding of democracy.
Whereby we are again at the theme. We of the Alternative had
already demanded at the beginning of the first lockdown measures in 2020
assistance programs for the solo self-employed, those without shelter and other groups of persons.
Yet how do you come to terms with our policy? Not at all! To the members of the
CDU/CSU who just now cried out so indignantly: Since you, in the scope of a
generally leftward political wandering, have turned away from your hereditary
positions, must you now, ja,
stigmatize as extreme right the political values for which you yourselves have
not stood for 20 years.
All of you reject each of our motions and in that regard spread unbelievably fake news.
Matthias Zimmer (CDU/CSU): Theme!
The AfD ensures the spread of Corona; the AfD ensures the neglect of women’s rights;
Matthias Zimmer (CDU/CSU): Herr President! What then is the theme?
the AfD is responsible for Judenhass in Germany; and the AfD is naturally responsible for the murder of Walter Lübcke. Ladies and gentlemen, you are here carrying authentic, open opinion and democracy to the grave. I therefore appeal to you in the name of the fathers of our Basic Law: Permit other opinions,
Sven Lehmann (Greens): Rightist extremism is not an opinion!
come to terms with our good ideas, and do not categorically
reject these solely because these are from the AfD.
I therefore hope that you stop with your legal motions and
ostensible assistance measures, fatal for the people, which in the lockdown
measures ordered by you are merely placebos at the cost of our people. You harm
not only our solo self-employed, artists, small- and mid-sized retailers, service
providers, hotel and restaurant operations. No, you permanently and
persistently annihilate millions of workplaces, millions of livelihoods, the
dreams of hundreds of thousands of people of a bit of happiness and freedom in
prosperity.
Particularly the solo self-employed whom you drive to ruin
by means of a permanent work ban, leaving them to starve with empty promises to
out-stretched arms. And I unfortunately do not mean that only picturesquely.
The hitherto – as you name it – assistance programs are anything but authentic
help for the solo self-employed. The final effect is that the government
disgraces itself with the November, December, January, February, March
assistance when this in fact is not received by those affected. The “Bild” newspaper last Saturday reported
on a cook here in Berlin who received a December assistance in the sum of, believe
it or not, 6 euros.
Our motion [Drucksache
19/26901], “Support for the Solo Self-employed – Help which Arrives”, includes
precisely that which this government has neglected for a year: A direct aid for
the self-employed who for a year have been undeservedly damned to inactivity by
this government, and referred to the alms of jobs centers so as to preserve
themselves and their families from starvation. In the year 2020 alone, almost
100,000 solo self-employed needed to apply for Hartz-IV.
I speak here of men who throughout their lives could take
care of themselves by means of the work of their own hands and were never
directed to public feeding, men who with work and diligence could feed their families,
men who by means of their taxes have made a contribution to the social state.
Now these men stand before the final exit of their livelihoods.
The regulations contained in your Social Support Packet III
in no way lead to an improvement in the situation of these men. Instead, you
prepare the way to a permanent stay in the basic security and thereby to
long-term unemployment. If the definition of benefits [Leistungen] is for once looked at, one is immediately struck by the
paradox of your Social Support Packet. It says “basic security for those
seeking work”, not “basic security for the solo self-employed”, whose work you
have forbidden by means of senseless Corona preventive measures.
The solo self-employed require direct aid so as to be able
to secure their subsistence, and not simplified access to a system which, once
caught in its clutches, no one again gets quickly free.
I thank you for your attention.
[trans: tem]
