Employer president is in favor of Scholz as SPD chief

Just in time for the Employers' Day, Employer President Ingo Kramer struck one side in the race for the SPD presidency. "I make no secret of the fact that I personally experienced Olaf Scholz in the neighborhood as Hamburg mayor - and he did a great job there," said the entrepreneur from Bremerhaven in an interview with the "Handelsblatt" about the Minister of Finance and Vice Chancellor.

This gives Scholz in the fight for the presidency of the Social Democrats prominent campaign support by the voice of German employers. Scholz candied with Klara Geywitz for the chief post. The two will play in a run-off election in a few weeks against former North Rhine-Westphalian Finance Minister Norbert Walter-Borjans and the member of parliament Saskia Esken.

Scholz and Chancellor Angela Merkel are expected during the day for the employers' day in Berlin. The downward trend of the German economy, the debate on a tax reform and the recent agreement of the Grand Coalition on a model for a ground rent are likely to be the subject of much discussion. Kramer warned the union in the interview before further concessions to the SPD: "The Union must someday also endure the conflict with the SPD and may not only get involved therefore more in social democratic policy, otherwise the collapse of the coalition threatens."

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Economists and the federal government had recently lowered their forecast for the growth of the German economy significantly, even if the German economy probably once again slipped past a severe recession. Above all, the export-strong German industry is burdened by the weaker world economy, international trade conflicts and Brexit. Kramer's Confederation of German Employers' Associations (BDA), like other leading associations, has long been calling for tax relief for companies in order to remain competitive.

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Despite the basic pensions agreement, the employer president sees the continuation of the coalition in the balance: "The probability is 50 percent or more that the government changes sometime between November and February, that we get a new coalition, a minority government or new elections." When asked if he shared the criticism of Friedrich Merz that the grand coalition was making a "grotesquely bad policy," Kramer replied, "No, and we do not drive in the fog all the time, I do not need to comment on that."

Nor does Kramer have any fear of a Green Chancellor. He has experienced the Greens in the government of Gerhard Schröder as relatively pragmatic, said the BDA chief. "Those were not the worst years for Germany, in this time reforms have fallen that made the long upswing possible."