Around a year before the next regular federal election, the SPD is well behind the Union in surveys and only receives around half as much support as the CDU/CSU. Co-party leader Lars Klingbeil therefore called for a “catch-up” effort by the Social Democrats. A strategy paper on economic policy, which the party executive committee decided at its meeting this weekend, shows how this should succeed in terms of content.
The six-page paper with the title “We are fighting for Germany’s future: stimulating the economy, securing jobs, relieving the burden on employees” is available to the Tagesspiegel. Klingbeil had already announced that the fight for industrial jobs would become a central area of debate, especially with the CDU.
In this way we stimulate the economy from below and from the middle of society.
The SPD in a strategy paper
Specifically, the SPD wants this for 95 percent of taxpayers Reduce income taxwhile the one percent with the highest incomes are supposed to pay more. “Taxpayers with the very highest incomes can take on a little more responsibility to finance a tax cut for the majority of people,” the paper says.
The Minimum wage should rise to 15 euros. Companies that invest in future industries and thus modern jobs should Super write-offs receive. “Anyone who invests in Germany receives tax benefits,” the paper says. This would be a strategy that the US government also uses to attract companies and investments.
For Electric cars it should new purchasing incentives give. The SPD also wants to introduce an electric car quota for leasing providers and provide tax incentives for electric company cars. As suggested by Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), industrial companies should pay less for electricity through relief in network fees.
The SPD also calls for one again in the paper Debt brake reform and promotes them Establishment of a Germany fundto mobilize private and public capital for future investments. One of the traffic light coalition will be rapid adoption of the Federal Collective Bargaining Act and the Pension Package II required.
Sharp criticism of Merz
The Union and its prospective candidate for chancellor Friedrich Merz The paper is accused of calling for “wage restraint, social cuts, pension cuts, the restriction of the right to strike, the privatization of public infrastructure and the cancellation of public investments”. These proposals are the wrong way to get Germany out of the crisis.
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“Anyone who insults employees in Germany as lazy and denies them good wages and secure pensions has lost respect for the true top performers who keep our country running every day with their hard work,” writes the SPD executive board. “This also includes the many millions of employees with a migration background and their families who have to experience every day being described as a ‘problem’ by the CDU and CSU.”
Union: “Suggestions out of the blue”
Thorsten Frei, the first parliamentary managing director of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, rejected the attacks on CDU leader Merz. “If the Chancellor’s party uses false statements against the opposition leader, that is, above all, evidence of lack of sovereignty and small-mindedness“, he told the Tagesspiegel. In the SPD strategy paper he sees “suggestions from a political mothball”. “Germany is in recession for the second year in a row, and the SPD cannot find the strength to really change course,” said Frei.
The party wants a continuation of what is disguised as “industrial policy”. Subsidy policy. Unlike large corporations, the SPD doesn’t care about medium-sized businesses. “What we really need are lower electricity and energy prices, competitive corporate taxes, performance incentives and a budget policy that focuses on the future,” said Frei.
Frei suggested that the Social Democrats follow their former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder’s Agenda 2010 as an example. Instead, the SPD is once again attacking the minimum wage, even though this is a matter for the collective bargaining parties. He also criticized the renewed call for the debt brake to be relaxed: “It couldn’t be more unimaginative!“
The opposition politician called on the SPD not to wait until the federal election to provide relief for citizens and companies. “Germany simply cannot afford another year of standstill caused by traffic lights. The SPD should finally govern instead of entering the election campaign prematurely.