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CDU chairman Friedirch Merz provokes with "envy tax" statement

2021-01-14T16:55:48.451Z


What the CDU chairman Merz thinks of tax increases is well known. He now rejected a demand made by the SPD as an "envy tax" and "class struggle". That earned him sharp criticism.


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Friedrich Merz wants to take over the CDU leadership at the weekend

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Andreas Gora / POOL / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock

Shortly before the election of the future CDU chairman on Saturday, the candidates try again to draw attention to themselves.

Friedrich Merz did this on Thursday night with a statement about the wealth tax demanded by the SPD.

"This is pure class struggle," said Merz in the ZDF program "Markus Lanz".

He directed his criticism primarily to the SPD chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz.

Merz then shared a summary of his statements on Twitter: "On the one hand, the finance minister has enough money for all projects, on the other hand, he wants a new #enid tax on higher incomes."

The tax and duty burden is already "very high".

The term "envy tax" trended on Thursday on Twitter and brought Merz a lot of criticism, including from the Left Party.

Its chairman, Bernd Riexinger, accused the CDU politician of being an "advocate of pure egoism".

"At Merz everyone is next to himself," wrote Riexinger on Twitter.

The left-wing parliamentary group leader Amira Mohamed Ali also responded to Merz statements via Twitter and wrote: "The super-rich like him should do more for this country through higher taxes!"

Left-wing MP Stefan Liebich argued aggressively for a »envy tax« and wrote: »The richest 1 percent in Germany have 1/3 of all assets in their accounts.«

In the Bundestag, the FDP parliamentary group wanted to campaign for the repeal of the wealth tax law on Thursday evening.

Group member Stephan Thomae praised in advance on Twitter that the term »envy tax« put your finger in the wound «.

Instead of talking about improvements for “start-ups”, “how best to squeeze them out” is discussed.

Merz did not invent the name anyway - only a few days ago FDP leader Christian Lindner used it to reject claims for a wealth tax.

Federal Finance Minister Scholz, who is leading the SPD into the federal election campaign this year, in autumn 2020, in view of new billions in aid to cushion the corona crisis, spoke out in favor of tax increases for top earners - but only when the pandemic is over.

In December, the SPD chairmen Saskia Esken and Norbert Walter-Borjans reaffirmed this demand, which the party has had for a long time.

The crisis should "not deepen the social division," said Esken.

Therefore, strong shoulders should make a bigger contribution to the financing of the community right now.

"Whether that takes the form of a wealth tax or a one-off property levy - that can be discussed."

People with low incomes suffered "massive losses in income and social security during the crisis," said Esken.

"At the same time, the great fortunes in Germany and around the world grew explosively."

Icon: The mirror

mes / dpa

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2021-01-14

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