In a joint press release by the CDU, GRÜNEN, SPD and UWG/KA parliamentary groups, we published a counterstatement on 11 November 2024.
The CDU, GRÜNEN, SPD and UWG/KA parliamentary groups are very surprised by the statement that the city of Kaarst, or rather the politicians, had cancelled the subsidy for the Rose Monday parade as part of the budget discussions. This is expressly not the case!
As part of the package of measures for consolidation on 25 April 2024, the City Council commissioned the administration to analyse "Reduction potential of third-party cultural funding - carnival subsidy" (measure HHK-63). Discussions were to be held with all current funding recipients, including in the area of culture, and an average saving of at least 30 % was to be achieved across all funding recipients. At no time was or is there any discussion of discontinuing the subsidy completely!
The group chairmen call on the administration and the mayor to clarify by the next meeting of the city council at the latest how this false allegation came about and why the "5 Aape" association was recommended to submit an application to Sparkassenstiftung, although the grant is included in the 2025 draft budget.
Furthermore, the group chairmen emphasise the importance and necessity of the consolidation course, which must not be undermined by false claims and the resulting uncertainty and frustration among the clubs.
The counterstatement was signed by Ingo Kotzian (Chairman of the CDU Kaarst parliamentary group), Dominik Broda (Chairman of the Bündnis 90/Die Grünen Kaarst parliamentary group), Hildegard Kuhlmeier (Chairman of the SPD Kaarst parliamentary group) and Anja Rüdiger (Chairman of the UWG/KA parliamentary group).