The CSU's first Internet party conference knows only one topic: the corona crisis. The lead proposal not only sets the guidelines for the party's future course in crisis management, it also sets limits.
Munich (AP) - Less tax burden, more investments and premiums, less bureaucracy and more digitization: The CSU wants to lead Germany out of the corona crisis with a large stimulus package.
This emerges from the seven-page key motion of the party executive with the title "Make Germany strong - Learn and grow from Corona", which is available to the German Press Agency in Munich and which is to be decided on Friday at the online party conference of the CSU. The application leaves open how much money the ten packages of measures mentioned should cost or how it can be financed.
Covid-19 will - so it is said - put the health system, the welfare state, the economic order and "our way of life" to new tests. "We have to be ready to live with the virus, but we don't let our lives dictate it."
As a relief program for Germany, the CSU is calling for a reduction in corporate tax, improved depreciation options for investments and expanded loss offsetting options. "There is no place now for left-wing ideologues' anti-business fantasies. Nor is it time for tax increases."
In addition, the CSU is committed to the preservation and creation of new jobs: "In addition to the successful model of short-time work to preserve millions of existing jobs, we also want to provide incentives for the creation of new jobs. In addition, we want to raise the earnings limit in the mini-job area to € 600 per month and permanently link to wage developments. "
From the perspective of the CSU, labor law is also in need of reform - it should be adapted to the new world of work and more flexible working hours and locations. In addition, Germany needs "a moratorium over several years," which keeps social security contributions below 40 percent and reduces energy costs - for example by capping the EEG surcharge and its own industrial electricity price.
With the CDU and SPD, the CSU also wants to renegotiate the abolition of the solidarity surcharge - unlike in earlier statements by party leader Markus Söder, the proposal does not mention the complete or the rapid abolition as a clear goal. In order to increase the domestic inquiry, the application recommends more purchase incentives for all citizens - for example in the form of travel vouchers for overnight stays in Germany. The auto industry must also receive targeted help with purchase premiums for environmentally friendly vehicles.
For the "next economic miracle", more must also be done in the area of future technologies - for example robotics and artificial intelligence. A high-tech agenda had to be initiated at the federal level, and the existing high-tech agenda should be "accelerated" in Bavaria. Fresh capital and increased tax research grants provided for more innovations. Despite the crisis, climate protection should not be neglected.
In addition, the state had to invest more money in "new roads and rails, modern schools and universities, energy-efficient buildings and ultra-fast internet and mobile radio connections". By 2025, the 5G mobile network should be available everywhere. The federal government's mobile communications infrastructure company is to receive five billion euros for this, and approval procedures will be shortened.
Beyond that, digitization must also be advanced. "With the additional funds from the digital fund, every school should receive basic digital equipment," it says. In addition, a digital dual training offensive and a digital TÜV are required to cut red tape.
According to the CSU, Germany also needs an upper limit for government debt in times of crisis. "Debt must remain the exception," it says. However, it remains open where the limit should be.
In order to be better prepared for crises in the future, the CSU is calling for an emergency reserve of intensive care beds, essential medicines and infection protection materials. Nursing staff should be paid better, food, medical and pharmaceutical products should be increasingly produced in Germany again. "If necessary, pharmaceutical companies must also be obliged to produce at least one variant of important products in Europe."
