Infrastructure: car toll against “traffic collapse”? Rejection by FDP and Union

The main association of the construction industry (HDB) is calling for a car toll and is warning of a traffic collapse given the dilapidated roads. The toll could bring in around three billion euros per year, HDB managing director Tim-Oliver Müller told “Bild”. “The income must flow exclusively into road construction.”

According to Müller, the toll is necessary because motorways and federal highways are in poor condition. “In order to finance them adequately, we would need around ten billion euros per year. Currently it is less than eight billion.” Müller warned that without tolls, Germany would face a “traffic collapse.”

According to Müller, vignettes based on the Austrian model would be practical. In order to relieve the burden on drivers in return, the mineral oil or vehicle tax could be reduced.

The so-called economists had also brought a toll into play in order to secure investments in the transport infrastructure. The introduction of a car toll planned by the then federal government at the instigation of the CSU was stopped as illegal by the European Court of Justice in 2019.

Rejections from the Union and FDP

The Union and the FDP promptly rejected the construction industry’s proposal: The transport policy spokesman for the Union parliamentary group, Thomas Bareiß, told the dpa: “With us there will be no car toll. Already today, drivers only collect money at gas stations , with parking and with taxes: it’s getting more everywhere.” Driving should not become a luxury. Instead, the revenue from the truck toll would have to be used for road construction and maintenance instead of “plugging budget holes.”

The FDP transport politician Oliver Luksic added: “The truck toll has just been doubled. There is more than enough income from drivers’ taxes, which just needs to be invested more in bridges and roads.”