Sebastian Münzenmaier, February 10, 2023, Housing and Immigration

German Bundestag, February 10, 2023, Plenarprotokoll 20/86, pp. 10317-10318.

Right honorable Frau President. Ladies and gentlemen.

In a “best Germany of all time”, according to a homelessness report, almost 40,000 people are on the street, all together around 260,000 have no fixed shelter. Who with open eyes moves through German cities can see this suffering under many bridges and in many subway stations.

The motion put forward by the Linke now wants to fight this problem with the Housing First concept. Positive examples and some studies show that the concept thoroughly works. First a dwelling and then assistance in specific areas of living which are often concerned with an improvement and for a dwelling stability. We also welcome this concept. We are strongly persuaded that Housing First can be a component of a strategy against homelessness.  

Yet if this concept “Housing First” is to function, then known conditions need to be fulfilled, and that is the great contradiction of your motion, ladies and gentlemen. Since it is just your political dispositions which prevent successful strategies in regards homelessness. That has two reasons.

First. In Germany prevails an acute housing shortage, as you yourselves correctly write in your motion. Today, we are lacking 700,000 dwellings. That is besides the greatest deficit in more than 20 years. And what does the policy do to counter that? At the Federal level, the Federal ministries fail completely. The great goal of 400,000 dwellings – it really is an impudence that have have once again defended it – you have botched, you will botch it, you will never achieve it. You have this year crashingly failed. Apparently, not even 200,000 dwellings will be built this year. The only sensible thing which could done with your Ampel building ministry would be: We abolish it. We re-designate the offices as dwelling space. Then would Frau Geywitz have at least achieved one sensible thing in her life.

            Gabriele Katzmarek (SPD): You are again today quite witty?

Yet not only you of the Ampel are guilty of the housing misery – you need not get excited – the Linke also in part contribute to it.

Gabriele Katzmarek (SPD): Nevertheless quite witty, what you say there! Man, man, man!

You write in your motion, dear Linke, it should be managed “according to the example of the State of Berlin”. To me, that is real satire. It is, ja, nice, Frau Katja Kipping, that you use your last days as a Senator to visit us here in the Bundestag; we rejoice. Yet I would prefer you did your work in Berlin; since the housing market in Berlin, where you of the Linke have co-governed since 2016, is overall one of the most catastrophic. For years, the number of approved new housing constructions declines. And instead of promoting new housing construction, the Linke prefer to blather on about expropriations and, with their socialist projects like the rent cap, drive the last builders out of Berlin. You are not part of the solution, you are the problem, dear Linke delegation.

Dirk-Ulrich Mende (SPD): You are the problem!

Let us come to the second reason why your dispositions do not function. Even if you do not want to hear it – you may again bleat alike –

            Gabriele Katzmarek (SPD): Intelligent interjection, that was!

who wants Housing First must live “Germany First”. The uncontrolled mass immigration of the last years exorbitantly increases the housing demand.

            Maximilian Mordhorst (FDP): Yet it rapidly turns the corner!

Yes, I know, you do not want to hear it. Last year, 1.3 million foreigners came to Germany; those are not my numbers. I did not invite them; that was you.

            Wolfgang Strengmann-Kuhn (Greens): It was Putin who provided for that!

1.3 million foreigners! The empirica regio reckons in 2023 alone with an additional 600,000 households of Ukrainians alone in the housing market. Quite honestly: You always rile yourselves up over it!

            Maximilian Mordhorst (FDP): You always rile yourself up!

Yet is it then so difficult to grasp – I know it is apparently for one or the other really difficult – that you are able to just once bestow any dwelling in Germany? You can give them either to German citizens who produce the prosperity of this country, or implement them for projects like Housing First,

Leni Breymaier (SPD): What then do you want to do with the people? You wicked man, you!

or give them to anyone who yesterday has stumbled over the border.

            Gabriele Katzmarek (SPD): Oh, oh, oh!

Yet you can give them only once. That is prioritization, that is the duty of politics. You appear willing to simply not understand it, ladies and gentlemen.

            Wolfgang Strengmann-Kuhn (Greens): You prioritize between people! That is offensive!

            Leni Breymaier (SPD): You are a humanitarian disaster on two legs!

For us of the AfD, the priorites in this area are clearly set: To build more housing, deport those obligated to leave, stop migration and instead make housing space available for our own people and gladly for projects like Housing First.

Allow me in conclusion to direct some words to the Berliners who are voting on Sunday.

            Vice-president Aydan Özoğuz: Yet that must be quickly, please.

Who wants Housing First must vote “Germany First”. For affordable rents, new housing space and a pleasant neighbor, there is on Sunday just one option:

            Vice-president Aydan Özoğuz: Please come to a conclusion.

All votes for the AfD!

I am grateful to you for your attention.

 

[trans: tem]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sebastian Münzenmaier, April 16, 2021, Travel Insurance and Insolvency

German Bundestag, Plenarprotokoll 19/222, pp. 28165-28166. 

Right honorable Herr President. Ladies and gentlemen.

According to applicable law, insolvency insurers, who offer and provide package tour insolvency protection, can limit liability to 110 million euros per fiscal year. We all know that this regulation was relevant in September and October of 2019 when the German affiliates of Thomas Cook moved to open insolvency proceedings and the liability for that ultimately provided that the taxpayer need answer for a sum of approximately 160 million euros. For this reason is it already long urgently necessary that finally a new draft law be put forward and we expressly welcome that the Federal government now finally follows up.

We in the Tourism Committee, in good time and, before all, across delegations, had demanded a new regulation and had already debated on the draft presented, and in that regard conversed with many experts. I therefore find it quite particularly unfortunate that the Federal government plain and simple tossed to the wind the relevant information and suggestions of the industry representatives and of many experts.

The federal association of the mittlestandische economy indicated in its comments thereto that, with a giving of security of 7 percent of turnover and a remuneration of 1 percent of turnover, many firms in the future must pay twice as high a contribution to the travel insurance fund as previously was to be paid for the insolvency insurance. With the new regulation, the strived-for improvement of the insolvency insurance for customers of the larger travel firms could thereby lead to an increased cost for small and mid-sized travel firms.

The international bus tours association, the RBA, sees it similarly and in its comments for the draft papers spoke of the accident risks of large international concerns which, by means of the mechanisms of the travel insurance fund, would in fact be shifted onto the mittlestandische and, before all, family-led travel firms. With this draft are thus once again the small and mittlestandische firms encumbered and their considerations ignored. These proceedings would even in normal times be feeble of the Federal government, yet in one of the greatest crises of the tourism industry, in which many diligent businessmen and employees are plain and simple at an end, the government’s behavior is a scandal, ladies and gentlemen.

I would have gladly spoken personally with Herr State Secretary Bareiss – he at least is the Federal government’s tourism commissioner – yet he once again is not here.

            Paul Lehrieder (CDU/CSU): He is here! He is sitting in the back!

It may be, he sits somewhere in the back. – Ach, Herr Bareiss, I greet you! You after all know the situation of the branch. It is your duty that the Federal government stands up for those in the tourism industry. Perhaps today you take an extra backward place, because you no longer fight at the front, Herr Bareiss.

            Volker Ullrich (CDU/CSU): That is an awful thing to say!

– Yes, but apparently on point. Since Herr Bareiss is part of the government and should himself stand up for the government, but apparently he does not ordinarily do that.

Let us come back to the draft law. The apportion limit of 3 million euros of turnover, under which there is the possibility to separate oneself from the compulsory membership in the fund and in another way insure oneself, is held by many experts to clearly have impinged too deeply. We should finally for once discuss whether we could not raise that 10 to 15 million euros.

Yet it truly lies in the rush, and the many open questions, and, before all, the ignoring of the experts’ complaints, that the Federal government for very long has done nothing and now suddenly takes note that urgent action is needed because otherwise by the end of the year we may have a giant problem.

In many other places is indicated that the draft law has been knit with the hot needle and shall now be quick whipped through the parliament. The GmbH [limited liability company] which shall manage the fund remains vague. No one know quite exactly how the arrangement of details will function. Has then the ominous adviser some possibility of influence or will one or another figurehead be installed there, who only advises and in the end costs money? How does the BMJV [justice ministry], for instance the Federal Office for Justice, actually undertake the supervision? And, before all: How so is it figured in the draft that, with only half a position, the supervision of a fund with 750 million euros shall be conducted? And here I am very anxious as to how you will explain this disproportion to us in the further consultations.

On the whole, you see, ladies and gentlemen: The draft leaves open important questions, ignores essential complaints of the tourism people concerned and appears to me to be not yet fully thought through. I am therefore glad of further consultations in committee and hope that in the future you let sensible suggestions influence your work.

I thank you for your attention.

 

[trans: tem]

 

Sebastian Münzenmaier, April 23, 2020, Government Declaration

Sebastian Münzenmaier

Government Declaration

German Bundestag, April 23, 2020, Plenarprotokoll 19/156, pp. 19313-19314

[Sebastain Münzenmaier is an Alternative für Deutschland Bundestag member from the western state of Rheinland Pfalz. He is an insurance salesman and currently chairman of the Bundestag’s tourism committee. He here responds to a general statement of government policy made in the Bundestag by Chancellor Angela Merkel.]

Right honorable Herr President. Right honorable ladies and gentlemen.

After all the pacifying and prettyfication which you, Frau Chancellor, have brought forward here, I believe it is important that we once again call to mind the following facts:

First. The absolute shutdown of this country was avoidable.

Second. As the Federal government, you bear, based on your initial delays and failures, the responsibility for the extremely harsh impact upon our basic rights and our economic life. Other states like South Korea or Taiwan have early shown how, by means of rapid action and intelligent solutions, a complete running down of a country can be avoided. The actions of this government in the early phase of the pandemic are instead a singular chronicle of failure. As the first news of a new form of virus from China arrived, this government did nothing. As Wuhan was cordoned off, you did nothing. When our delegation with a motion here in the German Bundestag on February 12 demanded resistance against the spread of the epidemic in Germany, you all laughed and instead did nothing. Even when Iran for weeks was categorized as an at risk area for the Corona virus, aircraft from Tehran landed at the Frankfurt airport without problem, without tests, without quarantine measures or entry restrictions.

Health Minister Jens Spahn robustly announced that Germany was well prepared. Dear Herr Spahn, there were as a consequence bottlenecks in the supply of disinfectant. Medical practices and hospitals suffered under enormous shortages of protective masks.

            Michael Grosse-Brömer (CDU-CSU): So in Italy and Spain, all’s well? 

            Ridiculous!

The testing capacity was by far insufficient. Your materials procurement efforts, by then hectic, and most of all, started too late, were marked by bankruptcy, bad luck and breakdown [Pleite, Pech und Pannen]. I myself remember for example the sudden diversion of millions of medical protective masks at some airport in Kenya. If that was your well-prepared, Herr Spahn, then you are not fit for the job.

If the German Bundestag had to present you with a work evaluation, then the best that could be on it would be “always trying” [“Stets bemüht”].

            Michael Grosse-Brömer (CDU-CSU): Who has written this speech for you?

Thanks to your initial inactivity and then to the misfortunate shutdown, the Corona virus in the meantime has become a danger for our economy and for our society and is plunging our country into the greatest economic crisis which we have ever experienced.   

You slumbered through the early starting time for preventative measures and now you are slumbering through the urgently required exit from the shutdown. Daily, despairing citizens call to implore us, and before all you, to finally lift the protective measures so that they can attempt to save their once flourishing businesses and firms.

Yet you in your government declaration here make quite clear where your priorities lie. You have spoken much of Europe, of European solidarity in the area of climate defense, that you wish to relieve the world’s poor countries from the interest and amortization of debts. Where were your words for the despairing businessman? Where were your words for the restaurant trade [die Gastronomie], Frau Merkel?

Of the more than 220,000 restaurant operations in Germany, with over 2.4 million employed, one out of three is threatened with insolvency. What are you doing towards an announcement of their relief? You offer no prospect at all to the restaurants and many other branches. Instead, last night you decided to combine the value-added tax on food and reduce it to 7 percent. A tax reduction on food that cannot be sold! This is a government of experts, I must truly say! Madness!

On the whole, your relief measures are completely insufficient and marked with senselessness. One may not happen to be in the beer garden in the fresh air and under protection of distancing and hygiene rules, but one may bustle about in an over-crowded hardware store with hundreds of other people. You may be infected in a large electronics store, if it is over 800 square meters, but that is not the case in a small book shop. All of this is entirely arbitrary and pulled out of the air.  

We of the AfD demand quite clearly: Permit now to all businesses, regardless of size of area, and all restaurants and other disadvantaged branches, a complete opening under protection of distancing and hygiene rules, ladies and gentlemen. Finally give some prospect again to the many hardworking people of this country.  

But in that regard, the only thing that occurs to you, Frau Chancellor, is that you do not want – I quote – “opening discussion orgies”.  Frau Chancellor, as we all know, that is a value to which, according to your wisdom and measures taken, there is apparently no alternative. Yet I therefore want to remind you in this sovereign house: You are not Louis XIV. You do not stand above the law. And even you are only elected for a time.

You have today spoken of that – I cite with permission of the president – “this pandemic is a democratic imposition…” I say to you: The democratic imposition is not the pandemic, but this Federal government, ladies and gentlemen.

On that account, I appeal once again to you, Frau Merkel, and to the entire Federal government:

            Michael Grosse-Brömer (CDU-CSU): Now it gets embarrassing.

Finally restore the constitutional order of this country and give back to the people their freedom!

Many thanks for your attention.

            Jan Korte (Linke): That is so mega-wrong!

[Translated by Todd Martin]