Investment bonus causes controversy
“That’s a hammer”: Lindner criticizes the Habeck plan
Updated 10/23/2024Reading time: 4 min.
Disputes in the coalition are inevitable: Robert Habeck wants to stimulate the economy with a Germany fund. However, the proposal is not well received by his fellow coalition members.
Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) has made a new attempt to support companies with state funds. On Wednesday he proposed an “unbureaucratic investment bonus” of ten percent of the investment volume. The money should come from a “Germany fund” from the federal and state governments and should go especially to “craft businesses and small and medium-sized businesses”.
According to Habeck, the measure should be limited to five years. The resulting greater economic growth would ensure that national debt would only increase moderately.
Sharp criticism from the coalition partner FDP followed promptly. Especially since the proposal is a clear positioning against the FDP – and its chairman, Finance Minister Christian Lindner, who primarily insists on budget discipline. And apart from that, Habeck could have stirred up the traffic lights again with his proposal.
According to government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit, the proposals had not been agreed upon within the federal government. “This has not been agreed with the Chancellor, but it doesn’t have to be,” said Hebestreit on Wednesday in Berlin, referring to departmental responsibility. Habeck’s paper is “a proposal in the political debate”. It makes sense for everyone involved to think intensively.
According to the Federal Ministry of Economics, all investments made by companies, with the exception of investments in buildings, should be eligible for funding from the Germany Fund. The premium would be offset against the company’s tax liability in the year of investment.
“If it is higher than the tax liability or if the company makes no profits at all, the difference or the entire bonus is paid out,” says the minister’s “modernization agenda” published on Wednesday.
“Green steering fantasies are the wrong course for Germany”
The SPD praised Habeck’s initiative, but the Liberals were immediately criticized. “The Federal Minister of Economics did not simply introduce a proposal into the debate, Robert Habeck is calling for a fundamentally different economic policy for Germany,” said Finance Minister Christian Lindner during a visit to New York. “That’s quite a hammer.”
He is now having his ministry check whether the proposal can be theoretically implemented – only then can the matter be discussed. Among other things, European state aid law and fiscal rules must be observed. “We simply can’t just spend as much money as some people want.” At the same time, Lindner emphasized: “In any case, it is clear that it is precisely this uncertainty about the further framework conditions of the German economy that has itself become part of our country’s problems.”
FDP parliamentary group vice-president Christoph Meyer castigated the initiative as “election campaign paper” that contained nothing new: “The designated Green candidate for chancellor has repeated all of this again and again over the last three years like an old lyre and has learned nothing from it,” said Meyer. on-line. “Instead of campaigning, Robert Habeck should put his green group on the trail and end their blockages on the growth initiative.”
At the same time, the FDP man emphasized his party’s position: The Liberals wanted “structural reforms for the entire economy” in order to increase competitiveness and investments. Innovations require “free enterprise,” said Meyer. “A market economy on a short leash of green control fantasies is the wrong course for Germany.”
The President of the Central Association of German Crafts, Jörg Dittrich, also expressed reservations. In the t-online interview he said: It would be better to reduce taxes and additional wage costs for all companies. He was also skeptical as to whether the traffic light proposal could be implemented at all: “For the location, what is important is not what is announced, but what politicians actually implement. We don’t need another project that ends up on the implementation dump. “