Caritas President Eva Maria Welskop-Deffaa sharply criticized CDU leader Friedrich Merz for his statements about the Caritas project “Stromspar-Check”. “In the debate on the trust issue, we unfortunately experienced exactly the polarization we have been warning against for months”, the Caritas chief told the “Stern” on Tuesday. “Defamatory comments were made here about the living situation of people with low incomes.”
These households, in particular, are disproportionately burdened by rising energy costs. “Energy consulting is doubly necessary here: to relieve low-income households and as a contribution to concrete climate protection”, Welskop-Deffaa said. “It’s unfair to ridicule this proven effective project.”
The CDU’s chancellor candidate had attacked Green Economy Minister Robert Habeck in the debate, as Habeck had previously praised the Caritas project several times. “Energy savers” advise households receiving social benefits, basic income, or a low income, for free, on how to save energy. If the household has an outdated, energy-intensive refrigerator, there is a subsidy of up to 400 euros for the purchase of a new appliance.
The advisors, who are usually long-term unemployed, are trained and reintegrated into the labor market with the project, which is currently being promoted by the Federal Environment Ministry, but was previously located at Habeck’s Ministry of Economics. In the debate on the trust issue, Merz had attacked Habeck, saying that instead of talking about innovative ideas, he was talking about refrigerators and heat pumps.
Caritas President Welskop-Deffaa now called on Merz to make himself familiar with the project. “We would be happy to invite Mr. Merz to experience the highly innovative energy check in practice”, she said. She hopes that the debate on Monday will be an exception and that all parties will focus on a fact-based election campaign in the future. “The poor and the rich should not be played off against each other”, the Caritas chief said.