2024-04-24 20:02:46
The FDP presents proposals for better economic policy – and in particular angers the SPD. What’s in the Liberals’ twelve-point plan.
Ahead of the FDP party conference next weekend, the Liberals are launching an attack: With a twelve-point plan to stimulate the weakening economy, which the party’s executive board approved on Monday, the party leadership initially provoked sharp reactions from its coalition partner, the SPD.
The decision, which is available to t-online and which was first reported by the newspaper “Bild am Sonntag” at the weekend, envisages a whole series of ideas that the Social Democrats in particular find difficult to support. t-online summarizes the controversial points of the FDP “economic turnaround”, which is intended to bring more growth to Germany:
- Citizens’ money reform: The Liberals want citizens’ benefit recipients to have their benefits reduced by 30 percent in the future if they do not accept “reasonable job offers, including so-called one-euro jobs.” That would be a significant tightening of the sanctions regime, which so far only provides for a gradual reduction in benefits, by around 10 percent the first time a job is rejected. According to an announcement by Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD), job centers should only be able to completely cut off benefits for those who “totally refuse” for a period of up to two months.
- Tax benefits for overtime: The Liberals had already presented this idea two weeks ago. From the 41st hour of the week onwards, overtime worked should be tax-privileged – so that overtime becomes more worthwhile for citizens.
- Welfare state moratorium: Politicians should not decide on any new social benefits “for at least three years”. The paper leaves it open as to whether this also includes the basic child welfare provision decided by the coalition agreement, but which is still highly controversial in parliament. What is clearly stated, however, is that if inflation is taken into account “strictly as required by the standard rate”, “a zero round is to be expected” for citizens’ benefit this year. The idea behind it: Work should be more worthwhile than receiving social benefits.
- End of “retirement at 63”: According to the presidential paper, Germany “can no longer afford” the discount-free pension for those who have been insured for a particularly long time. Because: As a result, more older people tend to leave the labor market, but they are urgently needed given the shortage of work and skilled workers.
- Solidarity abolition: A long-running FDP favorite – which in the current debate about the right economic policy is aimed not only at people with higher incomes, but above all at around 500,000 companies. They should be directly relieved by ending the solidarity surcharge, which may be overturned by the Federal Constitutional Court anyway.
- End of renewable energy subsidies: The EEG funding should be ended quickly so that “renewable energies can finally be taken over” into the regular market. On this point, there could be a dispute with the SPD as well as the Greens.
In addition, the FDP leadership is also in favor of one Income tax rate “on wheels” which should automatically adjust to inflation so that citizens are not continually burdened more by the cold progression. The Liberals are also calling for their party leader Christian Lindner easier depreciation rules for companiesadditional Relief from bureaucracya moratorium on new rules and requirements for construction that the Reduce construction costs should, as well as more Openness to technology for more innovations and a Suspension of the German supply chain lawwhich will soon be replaced by the recently adopted new EU rules anyway.
So far, only a few representatives from the ranks of the FDP have commented on the paper. The Presidium will meet in the morning, after which a press conference will be scheduled to explain the matter.
Mützenich: “leftovers from the mothballs”
However, the Social Democrats are already very angry about the decision – and some statements sound like an ultimatum to the Liberals. SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert, for example, attacked the coalition partner head-on in the “Tagesspiegel”: “The SPD will not allow our country to be run with the tact of investment bankers. The basis of the traffic light coalition is and remains the coalition agreement.” What can be translated into: This paper contains explosives for the traffic light alliance.
Making the traffic light fail is also behind Russia’s propaganda strategy, which is spread in Germany via bots and fake news. Hear more about it here:
Embed
SPD leader Lars Klingbeil also took a strong stance. In an interview with the “Bild” newspaper, he said that it was true that something had to be done to stimulate the economy and secure jobs. “But if the FDP believes that the economy is doing better when craftsmen, nurses or educators are doing worse, then they are very wrong.” SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich called the FDP’s demands “a remnant of the mothballs and not up to date.”
FDP deputy leader Johannes Vogel responded on Sunday that the “current weakness of Germany as a business location also endangers the strong welfare state. “All coalition partners must have a common interest in achieving the economic turnaround,” Vogel told the German Press Agency. This includes easing the tax burden on citizens, but also creating “fair performance” when receiving basic security.
Germany is threatened with a long economic downturn
When asked on Sunday, the Greens initially did not want to comment on the Liberals’ proposals. But here, too, it is to be expected that many people will have received the presidential decision with displeasure.
The background to the entire discussion is the meager economic growth that all economists and also the federal government expect for this year. While most other industrialized nations are experiencing a significant growth spurt this year, Germany’s gross domestic product is threatening to stagnate.
In addition, the economists who advise the federal government, among others, warn that Germany risks being left behind in the long term if structural reforms are not initiated now. Above all, economists include more incentives to work, as demographic change could cause the declining volume of working hours to become a brake on the German economy and thus prosperity growth in the next few years.