Inspired by the latest election poll, the members of the state parliament of the Free Voters in Chieming started their parliamentary group retreat. “We are stable in double digits,” said parliamentary group leader Florian Streibl. “This is a very good prerequisite for us being able and going to continue the coalition with the CSU after the election in the fall.”
The BR had previously reported in its Bayerntrend that the FW could count on ten percent of the votes if there were state elections next Sunday. That is 1.6 percentage points less than they achieved in 2018. But considering that in the elections so far, the FW scored two to three points more than in the previous opinion polls, they can be confident of at least holding on to the level of 2018. Streibl is correspondingly optimistic: “It’s a strong tailwind.”
Tax policy, a crisis-proof Bavaria and the strengthening of volunteer work: These are the topics of the FW retreat. In terms of tax policy, the main issue is inheritance tax. This is a matter for the federal government and in this respect the FW have no influence on them. But the party is extremely annoyed about it. “It’s almost like a socialist penalty tax,” Streibl complained. “With it, a fortune that has been earned and thus already taxed is taxed again.” From the point of view of the FW, the inheritance tax should be abolished.
As far as crisis-proof Bavaria is concerned, the parliamentary group calls for the massive expansion of domestic energies – from hydropower to geothermal energy and the production of green hydrogen. In addition, the faction calls for a stockpiling of essential goods such as medicines. “It must not happen that the cough syrup runs out in the pharmacies,” said Streibl. Streibl called the volunteer work and thus the clubs “the glue that holds our society together”. After the corona pandemic and because of the energy crisis, they would have to be particularly strengthened – for example by significantly increasing the flat rates for clubs, as the government coalition had already planned.