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Magdeburg / Leipzig (dpa) - From the point of view of the CDU media politician Markus Kurz, no new imbalances should arise between the three federal states through austerity efforts at Central German Broadcasting.
In order to avoid this, the conversion of the radio house in Halle must be adhered to, said the Saxony-Anhalt member of the state parliament of the German press agency.
He understands that the MDR is putting the investment on hold in the current situation.
But it should not be questioned in principle.
Previously, Thuringia had already requested that the distribution of tasks in the MDR transmission area should be distributed more fairly between them, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt.
In doing so, the Free State renewed a criticism that had been raised again and again.
The MDR has state broadcasting houses with regional broadcasting locations in all three countries.
The television headquarters are in Leipzig, several radio stations for all three countries are currently being produced from Halle in Saxony-Anhalt and the program for the children's channel Kika from ARD and ZDF comes from the Thuringian state capital Erfurt under MDR management.
The reason for the flaring up political distribution debates is also a new state treaty between the three countries in which the station's tasks and structure are updated.
Kurz said that he is assuming that the MDR will look at the planned renovation of the radio building in Halle again as soon as the state treaty is valid - and that it will give the station new planning security.
The treaty was signed by the governments, but has yet to be approved by all three parliaments.
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Another state treaty failed in December because of this last hurdle.
Saxony-Anhalt's Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff blocked the premium increase from 17.50 euros to 18.36 euros on January 1, 2021 after massive resistance from his CDU and against the will of all other federal states.
ARD, ZDF and Deutschlandradio sued the Federal Constitutional Court.
Urgent applications were rejected by the court, the actual legal proceedings are still ongoing.
The broadcasting fee is the main source of income for the broadcasters.
Some have already announced specific savings plans.
MDR director Karola Wille announced on Monday that planned digital innovations would be put on hold due to the lack of an increase in the monthly radio fee.
As an example, she cited the “cross-media renovation in our program department in Halle”.
At the same time, Wille announced that it would waive a special right to terminate collective agreements.
This means that employees will get 1.7 percent more money from April 1 this year.
The Saxon-Anhalt CDU politician Kurz assesses Willes' decision to raise wages as something his party deserves.
"Our political intervention on an announced tariff freeze at the MDR has apparently had an effect," he said.
The increase is correct, since the contribution volume for the public service is the same as when the collective agreement was concluded.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210126-99-168966 / 2