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The federal government's self-praise campaign costs more than six million euros

Billboard posters across Germany, full-page ads in regional and national newspapers, radio commercials, ads in search engines and social media: the “We relieve Germany” campaign was hard to miss in December and January.

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The federal government's self-praise campaign costs more than six million euros

Billboard posters across Germany, full-page ads in regional and national newspapers, radio commercials, ads in search engines and social media: the “We relieve Germany” campaign was hard to miss in December and January. The federal government was thus promoting its relief packages totaling almost 300 billion euros, which were decided last year as a result of the energy price and inflation crisis.

The federal government had the self-praise campaign cost large sums of money. "The maximum expenditure estimated in the campaign budget is around 6.19 million euros," says a WELT response from government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit to a written question from AfD member of parliament Leif-Erik Holm. "The exact amount of the costs can only be quantified after the final invoice including the final discounts has been submitted, which experience has shown to take at least a few months."

The campaign provides information about the details of the gas and electricity price brake, the energy discount for households and companies, the higher child benefit and the unlimited home office flat rate. For example, alongside the slogan “Together for our society: We relieve Germany”, billboards include figures on the housing benefit reform, the heating cost subsidy and the reduction in value-added tax on gas.

AfD parliamentary group Vice Holm sharply criticizes the high expenditure for the information campaign. “It smells a lot like burnt tax money. Nothing else is the more than six million euros with which the government is expensively drumming up advertising on its own behalf," he said. "In view of permanent austerity appeals to the citizens, the traffic light should better set a good example and save on their own PR, which costs millions."

At the request of the Taxpayers' Association, the Federal Press Office stated that the information campaign was fulfilling its "information mandate towards the population". The advertising is financed on our own behalf from the budget item "Interdepartmental communication and coordination".

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