Far-left opposition slams lack of day care facilities in Germany

Germany lacked day care facilities for 378,000 pre-school children in 2021, according to the Family Affairs Ministry.

The figure was provided in response to a parliamentary inquiry by the opposition hard-left Die Linke party made available to dpa on Sunday.

In the age group of 1 to 3 years, a total of 291,000 children were without day care, while in the older group up to the age of 6 that figure stood at 87,000, according to the ministry.

Despite a legal right to day care for children from the age of 1, children "are being denied the opportunity for early childhood education and social learning," Die Linke spokeswoman for child and youth policies Heidi Reichinnek said.

"But instead of the federal government seeing these figures as a reason to support municipalities and the states appropriately in expanding day care centres, they withdraw further from responsibility," she said.

Reichinnek noted that the federal government provided just €2.8 billion ($3.1 billion) of the almost €50 billion required annually for day care centres. The chronically underfunded system was close to collapse, she said.

According to the ministry, additional day care facilities for some 10,000 children under 3 years old, and for about 87,000 children between 3 and 6 years old were created between 2020 and 2022.