Sunday, November 7th, 2021
Fear of German yellow vests
Söder for lower VAT on gasoline
At the climate conference in Glasgow, states are struggling to agree on measures to achieve international climate targets. Meanwhile, CSU boss Söder sees a “cold winter of traffic lights” in Germany in view of the high energy prices – and proposes tax breaks.
CSU boss Markus Söder has spoken out in favor of massive tax breaks in view of high energy prices. When it comes to gasoline, it is worth considering “temporarily reducing VAT to the reduced rate,” said Bavaria’s Prime Minister to the newspapers of the Funke media group. This would reduce the VAT on fuel from 19 to seven percent. In addition, the levy from the Renewable Energy Sources Act must be reduced to zero and the electricity tax “to the European minimum”. For the economy, Söder proposed a “capped industrial electricity price”. Socially disadvantaged people should receive heating subsidies.
Söder did not want to question the increase in energy consumption to protect the climate. But compensation models are needed so that “the ecological question does not become a permanent social question,” he warned. “Lateral thinkers are challenging enough. Now add yellow vests – that would be a real problem for our democratic culture.”
At the same time, Söder spoke out in favor of the rapid commissioning of the controversial Russian-German gas pipeline Nord Stream 2. “It takes a sensible strategy to secure energy supplies,” he said. “In addition, it makes sense that we open the Nord Stream 2 Baltic Sea pipeline soon so that the gas price can be regulated.” With regard to the opposition to the gas pipeline, especially among the Greens, the head of government said: “We cannot sit and watch as prices rise before the cold winter. That is also the cold winter of the traffic lights, people expect a solution quickly.”
Gas-fired power plants would become more important because of the phase-out from nuclear and coal energy. “Nord Stream 2 would simply be a secure basis for us to have stable gas availability in Germany.”