German Bundestag, Plenarprotokoll 20/70,
pp. 8273-8274.
Frau President. Right honorable ladies and gentlemen. Dear
colleagues.
When the speeches, Frau Minister, of you and the colleagues
of the Ampel coalition are listened
to, then it almost needs be thought that all is for the best in the education
and research nation of Germany. Ladies and gentlemen, that is by no means the
case. Nothing is good in the education and research nation of Germany. The
opposite is the case.
Frau Minister, even if you act here as if your Ministry was
one of importance and your colleagues also thus emphasize it: You need only
take a peek at the time up there to see how high the status of your Ministry
actually is in this Federal government.
Kerstin Radomski (CDU/CSU): Yes, that’s true!
We debate education and research following agriculture and
shortly before closing time, ladies and gentlemen. On such a day here, it
actually needed to be in the first place – you need not act thus. You are the
masters of the daily order.
Kai Gehring (Greens): We just wonder how early you make closing time!
And which says something of where the several departments
are to be ordered.
It is also not right that there has been an increase. On
balance, it is the more so – and the Federal Audit Authority has calculated this
for you – that the budget even shrinks if the inflation rate is considered.
Yet that alone is only half the truth; since in fact there
is an area where we see an enormous increase, not only with you but also with
your predecessor in the last legislative period, and indeed in the area of
co-workers. The number of co-workers in the BMBF
alone rose 24 percent in the last legislative period.
Kai Gehring (Greens): That is false! They have also let women go!
That was besides twice as many as
in the other ministries. It comes to still more in the additional years.
Meanwhile, we have 1,414 co-workers in the Ministry for Education and Research.
Kai Gehring (Greens): Acknowledge that co-workers were also let go!
Ladies and gentlemen, one may well ask: What do these
co-workers do all day long?
Kai Gehring (Greens): More than you!
Germany actually needs to be at the top in regards education
and research – we unfortunately are not; the opposite is the case. Meanwhile,
we lose not only at football but also in other areas. For example: In regards
patents, the other nations march past us.
This morning we heard how bad the reality seems: Your 1,400 co-workers are alone not in a position to set up an on-line platform on which the students can order a one-time, heating cost subsidy of 200 euros. Here, you now call for help at one of the new Federal states. I find that to be embarrassing, ladies and gentlemen.
Recently a couple of reasonable projects from the FDP were
paid for; yet there are also others in this budget. We finance – actually you
finance it, since we don’t want it – GiB,
“A Look at Gender Aspects”. We finance “Schools without Homophobia”.
Nina Stahr
(Greens): Good!
Wiebke Esdar (SPD): Correct!
We finance IfiF, “Innovative
Frauen in Focus”.
Nina Stahr (Greens): Also good!
We finance – or you – in the millions a program for female professors.
A Girls’ Day is financed, “Education for Sustainable Development”, etc., etc. Ladies
and gentlemen, this budget thus excels only in ideology. Instead of performance
and talent, you put in the first place gender and origin. Nothing can thus keep
up with a world’s best education, ladies and gentlemen.
This budget needs to be completely cleaned out. We had hoped
that you might bring a fresh wind into the Ministry. Unfortunately, like your
predecessor, only a light puff blows. In truth, the Greens stamp this Ministry
with their mark and that is the principal problem.
On the other side, money is lacking where it actually needs
to be committed. For artificial intelligence, for example, a petty 50 million
euros. In the area of nuclear energy research you have foreseen nothing at all.
The Greens do not allow you even that. I know that you yourselves would see or
do it otherwise; yet also here, Germany walks a Sonderweg. That is not good for our future. Education and research
need again to be in the first place. With the Greens at your side, you cannot
do it, Frau Minister.
Many thanks.
[trans: tem]
