This open letter was written by the AStA of Mainz University and signed by the student bodies listed below. This is a translation of the German original prepared by the AStA of the University of Göttingen.

To Olaf Scholz, Friedrich Merz, Robert Habeck, Christian Lindner, Heidi Reichinnek, Jan van Aken, Alexander Dobrindt and Sahra Wagenknecht.

In recent years, our society has been shaken by numerous crises that have hit the weakest particularly hard. For a long time, we students have tried to adapt, we have tightened our belts, we have shown solidarity with our fellow human beings. However, the dramatic deterioration in our quality of life has now reached a level that we can no longer accept:

Our BAföG and mini-job wages have been eaten up by inflation, our rents are going through the roof and global crises are darkening our future. Price rises, interest rates on loans and exploding rents are making us poor – stress, loneliness and housing shortages are making us ill. In elitist circles, however, mainly represented by chronically over-aged and overpaid talk show guests, these grievances go unnoticed. Instead, recent debates have increasingly revolved around forcing young people to work for a year in any professional field that has been understaffed and cut by the ruling politicians for decades, while the champagne corks continue to pop incessantly for a few well-heeled entrepreneurs who have consistently refused to make their fair contribution to overcoming the crisis.

At the same time, we also find ourselves at the mercy of policies that do not address these problems in any way or even fuel them further, which has resulted in, among other things, a progressive shift to the right – especially among young people. The ruling class does nothing to counter this because it is not prepared to share its own power and privileges with the majority of those who are worse off. Instead, it is increasingly resorting to right-wing populist rhetoric itself and, as a result, is coming down harder and louder. We students are no longer prepared to be fobbed off by political decision-makers with slogans and warm words, but demand an immediate and radical change of course.

We, the elected representatives of the student bodies of universities and colleges, therefore call on you, the leading candidates of the democratic parties currently represented in the Bundestag, to sign our demands formulated here for improving the living situation of students and to urgently campaign for their consistent and rapid implementation in the coming Bundestag legislative period.

As representatives of the student bodies, we demand of you after the Bundestag elections:

 

1. radically reform BAföG, finally get over 37.9% of students out of poverty!

We demand that the BAföG rate for all students be raised to €1,350 next year in order to completely end poverty among students! This amount should be paid out monthly to all students, regardless of their parental home and living conditions, in a procedure that is as unbureaucratic as possible. The benefits should also be paid out completely free of repayment and the standard period of study for Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees should be increased by two semesters in each case.

 

2. an end to unaffordable housing for full-time students!

The federal government should take appropriate measures to cap rents for students at €300 as a first step! Full-time students should not have to pay a single cent more than this amount for a roof over their heads!

 

3. prevent months of flat-sharing castings and waiting lists with a special building program!

The federal government should launch a major state housing construction program from the next legislative period! We demand the creation of 200,000 new student residences by 2030!

 

4. end overpriced canteens and moldy halls of residence through overdue investments!

The federal and state governments must provide the Studierendenwerke with significantly more funding – the necessary investments for young people are finally needed!

 

5. student mobility for free!

All students nationwide should be able to use public transport free of charge and without a ticket in future!

 

Representatives of the student bodies who have signed so far:

AStA of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz

AStA of the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg

AStA of the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel

AStA of the German Sport University Cologne

AStA of the Folkwang University of the Arts

AStA of the Goethe University Frankfurt

AStA of the Justus Liebig University Giessen

AStA of the University of Education Schwäbisch Gmünd

AStA of the Technical University of Braunschweig

AStA of the Technical University of Darmstadt

AStA of the University of Bielefeld

AStA of the University of Bremen

AStA of the Berlin University of the Arts

AStA of Saarland University

AStA of the University of Göttingen

AStA of the University of Hamburg

AStA of the University of Koblenz

AStA of the University of Lüneburg

AStA of the University of Passau

AStA of the University of Vechta

AStA of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)

AStA University of Osnabrück

Student Council of the Film University Babelsberg

Student Council of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena

Student Council of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena

Student Council of the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg

Student Council of the University of Heidelberg

Student Council of the University of Education Karlsruhe

Student Council of the University of Education Weingarten

Student Council of the University of Tübingen

 

You can find the open letter as PDF here (german language).