But now half long with the so-called 200 million program!

It has been announced for months.

A social summit in the State Chancellery had the first impact.

Then the black-green coalition accepted the demand from the social democrats and liberals to have a say.

The effect is now that the state government is also receiving praise from the ranks of the opposition for a project that in its actual dimensions falls far short of the pompous public impact.

The figure of EUR 200 million, which has been repeated like a mantra, includes a buffer of EUR 45 million.

This reserve is only mobilized when emergencies arise that are not yet concretely foreseeable.

54 million euros are also planned for microloans and counter-guarantees.

This leaves only around 100 million euros in real grants.

On closer inspection, the alleged 200 million package purrs down to half.

Hesse is permanently asked to pay

More significant is the sum with which the country has to contribute to the expenditure that has been decided at the national level.

The Hessian share of the 49-euro ticket, the expansion of the housing allowance and the accommodation of the Ukrainian refugees, calculated according to a certain key, totals 380 million euros.

While the women and girls will probably return to their homeland sooner or later, Hessen will be asked to pay for the new Germany-wide ticket and housing benefit not just once, but permanently.

And if the ticket, assuming it is actually introduced one day, costs a lot more money than currently planned, there will be a second helping from the Hessian state budget.

All this is no reason for hasty criticism, but it helps to classify the events.

In the historic crisis, if you disregard the radical forces on the fringes, there is a rarely seen cross-party consensus of deputies in the Hessian state parliament, whose actual influence is very limited.

The billions were moved in the negotiations between the federal and state governments.

The fact that the opposition politicians of the SPD and the FDP also supported the result in Hesse without further ado is mainly due to the fact that both parties belong to the federal government.

The current party-political mix in the federal and state governments plays into the hands of the Hessian Prime Minister Boris Rhein (CDU).

It seems he has already passed his first test between Wiesbaden and Berlin.