Corona aid: The German entrepreneurs have a suspicion

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The frustration in the economy about the slowly flowing Corona billions is great shortly before the Prime Minister's Conference.

The equity capital melts faster with each additional week of the lockdown and the companies have to fear that they will no longer be able to hold their operations and thus also their employees, writes the federal chairwoman of the young entrepreneurs Sarna Röser in a letter to Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD), the WELT present.

She also tells the minister what is being said about him in her circles.

Namely, that his ministry is blocking and delaying the important bridging aid III with "small print".

"The suspicion is circulating that the SPD candidate for chancellor hopes with his delaying tactics that anger and desperation of the entrepreneurs would be discharged from the CDU economics minister," Röser wrote.

In the letter, Röser does not provide any evidence for their speculations.

From the Federal Ministry of Finance it says only briefly: "The allegations are absurd."

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The harsh accusation does not only show how downcast many entrepreneurs are with their nerves after seemingly endless months in which many businesses have to remain closed.

The accusation also reflects the growing concern that campaign considerations are playing an increasingly important role in the discussions about lockdown and aid.

This is not unfounded, there have already been skirmishes.

The harmony is gone

It has been almost a year since SPD Minister Scholz and CDU Minister Altmaier sat next to each other in harmony and presented the several hundred billion euro Corona aid program to the public, with which jobs were to be secured and companies to be saved from collapse.

That worked well for a long time.

But with the second shutdown in November, not only did business impatience grow, but mutual accusations within the grand coalition also increased.

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Altmaier's Ministry of Economic Affairs is responsible for all Corona aid.

But nothing works without Olaf Scholz's Ministry of Finance.

It was his officials who largely devised the November aid, in which the affected restaurateurs, hoteliers and caterers were suddenly no longer only reimbursed for fixed costs, but a large part of the loss of sales.

For this system change, a new payout platform was necessary, which someone first had to program.

That was again the job of Altmaier's people.

Poisoned Defense

When the November aid was still not paid out in mid-January, Scholz asked carefully in public for understanding for his cabinet colleague.

"I have to protect my colleague Altmaier from criticism," said the finance minister during a television interview.

The programming of the platform is "technically not trivial".

Such a poisoned defense made many veteran observers of the Berlin power games sit up and take notice.

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The return coach from Altmaier came on Sunday evening.

Altmaier initially admitted in a talk show that the aid is being paid out far too slowly.

“First of all, I apologize for the fact that it is taking so long.

If I had seen any way to speed it up I would have done it, ”he said.

Then he provided an explanation as to why the new Bridging Aid III, announced in mid-January, cannot even be applied for.

Until a few days ago there was still a dispute with the Federal Ministry of Finance about this, and before that one could not start paying out, said Altmaier.

“This is something where we are too clumsy, where we have to get faster.” He spoke of “we”, but it was easy to guess who he meant by that.

Two days later, the details of the assistance, mainly tax-related, which many entrepreneurs have been waiting for weeks, are still not known.

That will hardly put the young entrepreneur Sarna Röser at ease.

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