The German government has censored a report published every four years on poverty, developed by the Ministry of Labour, suppressing critical passages on deepening inequalities between rich and poor, Süddeutsche Zeitung writes in Wednesday’s edition.
Thus, since the introduction of the report, the sentence “private property in Germany is very unevenly distributed” vanished in the “retouched” version of the original, after the newspaper obtained a copy.
Also, the censored version does not mention certain factual details, such as the fact that “in Germany in 2010, almost four million people work for an hourly wage of less than seven euros”, according to the daily newspaper.
Another phrase that criticizes the decrease in real wages over the last ten years for low-income people, perceives the decline in the new version as a “sign of structural improvements” on the labor market, involving the creation in 2007-2011 of many low paid jobs which allowed the unemployed to find a job.
Also according to Süddeutsche Zeitung, the Minister of Economy, Liberal (FDP) Philipp Rösler, said that the first version of the report by the Ministry of Labour, the head of which is Christian Democrat (CDU) Ursula von der Leyen, does not coincide with the Government’s view.
“It is not a censored report,” said a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Labour, contacted by AFP. “The changes were made after consultation with ministries,” a “normal” process, especially since the report is dense – over 500 pages – and the coverage is broad, she insisted.
No date for publication has been established at this time, the final report will be approved by the Council of Ministers, said the spokeswoman.
Asked about this subject in a regular press conference in Berlin, German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said that rewriting parts of a report is “a perfectly normal process.” You see, when you will have the report that it gives a “realistic and aware of the problems” image of poverty and wealth in Germany, he said. Seibert also insisted on some positive developments, such as lower unemployment in the country in recent years.
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