The opposition has heavily criticized the interior and health ministries' planning for the movement summit on December 13.

Speakers from the Union and the left accuse the government of not inviting all members of the sports committee.

Michael Reinsch

Correspondent for sports in Berlin.

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In the sports policy debate in the Bundestag about the Union's proposals to promote health sports and to support clubs and other sports facilities in the energy crisis, the CSU MP Stephan Mayer called it unbearable that Parliament and its specialist politicians from the sports and health committees were left out should stay.

Clubs are also excluded.

The former Parliamentary State Secretary in the Ministry of the Interior complained that the summit was an elite internal government event.

It takes place too late and is wrongly designed.

Club revival after the pandemic

According to Mayer, the government's ReStart program for reviving the clubs after the corona pandemic with a volume of 25 million euros is extremely modest;

Bavaria alone is supporting its sports clubs this year and next with 40 million euros each.

The country has set up a hardship fund for social life and infrastructure, which also includes sport.

Schleswig-Holstein supports sport in the energy crisis with 9 million euros.

The CSU politician did not mention Lower Saxony, which is governed by the SPD and the Greens and plans to help its sport through the crisis with 30 million euros.

Mayer criticized that sport was not included in the first three relief packages before the gas price brake.

Sports clubs and municipalities as the sponsors of most sports facilities are also not entitled to apply for the hardship regulation.

Sport has no lobby in the government and is neglected, Mayer complained.

Left MP André Hahn called the planned summit a "movement tip".

In view of the importance of sport, it is unacceptable that Chancellor Olaf Scholz does not want to take part.

In addition to the law to promote elite sport, as the government is planning, there is a need for a law to promote popular sport.

The sports policy spokeswoman for the SPD parliamentary group, Sabine Poschmann, rejected the allegations, pointing out that the government had long been working on a reorientation of sports policy beyond the actual task of promoting top-class sports.

According to the FAZ, in addition to the Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser and Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach, who is responsible for sports promotion, six other ministries, the German Olympic Sports Confederation and the conferences of the Ministers of Sport, the Minister of Health and the Minister of Education will be represented in the Max-Schmeling-Halle in Berlin.

The Ministry of the Interior invites you to the kick-off event for the "Sport Development Plan" on the same day and at the same place.

The sports and health politician Herbert Wollmann, MP for the SPD, also said that everything the opposition is demanding is in the works.

He held out invitations to anyone who wished to participate.