Should the rich contribute to reducing the costs of the crisis with a one-off levy? There is a new push from the ranks of the SPD.
The SPD members of the Bundestag Joachim Post and Johann Saathoff have started a new initiative to ask the rich to pay to deal with the current crisis. In a joint position paper, the heads of the state groups of North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony/Bremen in the SPD parliamentary group are committed to continuing the debate about a one-off crisis levy, “so that the richest of the rich can make a fair additional contribution to overcoming and repaying the contribute to the burden of the crisis”. The SPD had already spoken out in favor of this at their party convention last autumn.
Bavarian Finance Minister Albert Füracker criticized the move as a “harmful tax increase fantasy”. “Even if the SPD tries to call it a crisis soli or a crisis levy, it is and will remain a tax increase – a complete mistake in these challenging times,” said the CSU politician. “Bavaria strictly rejects any form of tax increases.”
Post and Saathof published their position paper for the two-day spring conference of their national groups, which began on Friday afternoon in Dortmund’s Westfalenstadion. 76 of the 206 SPD parliamentarians come from North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony and Bremen. The topics of the conference include the consequences of the Ukraine war, the climate-friendly restructuring of industry, the strengthening of democracy and local politics.
Praise for the traffic light – despite the dispute
In the position paper, Post and Saathoff advocate giving political answers “beyond the coalition agreement”. Despite all the quarrels, they see the alliance with the Greens and FDP as a model for success beyond the current election period. “The traffic light, led by Chancellor Scholz, is the political alliance best placed to combine growth, social cohesion and sustainability in a forward-looking manner over the next two years and beyond,” the paper said.
The two MPs are committed to “massive planning acceleration” and are calling for, among other things, the construction of five wind turbines per day in Germany by 2030. In the traffic light dispute about the expansion of the infrastructure, they do not show any priority for rail or road. The demand for more speed “explicitly affects all modes of transport”.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
