Linken Leader Jan van Aken Criticizes the Union for their Proposal of a Work Obligation for Hartz IV Recipients.
“I hold Friedrich Merz to be a danger to the unity of the country” said van Aken to Ippen-Media. He accuses the Union of setting the stage for division and the enemy image of “lazy and greedy poor people” in the election campaign.
Van Aken refers to the “right to a humanly dignified minimum of existence” in the German Basic Law and emphasizes that the Union cannot simply abolish it. The Left’s top candidate further states, “The Basic Law does not state that the dignity of the willing-to-work person is to be protected, but that every human being has a right to respect for their dignity, regardless of performance, social status, or properties.” The debate over the work obligation, he says, is fueling distribution anxieties among all those who do not have enough to live on.
The FDP also sharply criticized Jan van Aken, as the Liberal’s spokesperson for the Citizen’s Benefit, Jens Teutrine, had openly expressed support for the Union’s proposal. Van Aken: “It does not surprise me that the FDP’s snobs are actively helping to break the social foundation of our society, which is the Citizen’s Benefit.”
Instead, van Aken demands a “strong social pact” with more investments in “good living, social security, good wages, and a future for the economy.” The SPD and Greens, he reminds, should stick to their promise of a social election campaign, focusing on issues like rent, distribution inequality, and prices. They should not get involved in the “smoke and mirrors debate” about migrants and the poor.