Tax anger at "Illner": Employer boss bursts thanks to Wissler's collar - Green boss makes a promise

Created: 08/19/2022, 12:48 p.m

Dispute in "Illner": Janine Wissler and Arndt Kirchhoff in the excess profit tax dispute.

© Jule Roehr/ZDF

Nouripour and Spahn argue on "Illner's" gas talk about political craftsmanship, the employer boss snubs the left.

There is agreement on Hirschhausen's announcement. 

Berlin - Nothing but chaos around the gas levy?

Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) now wants to reduce the VAT on gas to at least seven percent.

A surprising maneuver that is intended to relieve the burden on the citizens.

But the question, which not only Maybrit Illner asks himself, is: What is the point of the gas surcharge if the money flows back indirectly anyway?

So why not finance the gas supplier rescue directly from the federal budget?

CDU parliamentary group leader Jens Spahn has a clear stance on this.

He asserts that the Union supports many of the government's decisions: He is not concerned with fundamentally criticizing the opposition from the role of the opposition.

However, the former minister shows little understanding for the politics of the past few weeks: “We supported many decisions, and saving Uniper is the right thing to do.

It's been a mess for the past few weeks though.

The gas levy has become a chaos levy.

Not only are costs passed on, politicians pass on their internal chaos to the citizens.

We're building an insane bureaucracy.

Then we could have financed it straight away from the federal budget.” 

"Maybrit Illner" - these guests discussed with:

• Omid Nouripour (The Greens) –

  Party leader

• Janine Wissler (Die Linke) –

  party leader

• Jens Spahn (CDU, switched on) –

  deputy party chairman

• Arndt Kirchhoff –

  Vice President of the Employers' Association of Gesamtmetall

• Klaus Müller (connected) -

  Head of the Federal Network Agency

• Eckart von Hirschhausen (switched on) –

  doctor and moderator

Green boss Omid Nouripour listens to Spahn carefully, nods again and again and does not seriously deny the allegations when asked by Illner.

Instead, he refers to the effect of political action: "The path may seem like a crutch, but what matters is what comes out at the end and that is a relief."

Party chairman Omid Nouripour (Bündnis 90Die Grünen) as a guest on "Maybrit Illner" (ZDF).

© Jule Roehr/ZDF

"Illner" (ZDF): Linke Janine Wissler calls for an excess profit tax

Janine Wissler (left) does not agree with government policy.

She fears a social divide.

"What the traffic light does is socially unbalanced," says Wissler.

Better suited than a gas levy is therefore the levying of an excess profit tax: "We do not need a gas levy, which puts a burden on consumers again, but it would be necessary to do this from the tax revenue.

That's why we've been calling for an excess profit tax for a long time."

According to Wissler, there is even sympathy for this solution in the coalition, namely among the SPD and the Greens.

Only the liberals would stand in the way.

"The FDP, as the patron saint of corporations, prevents them," Wissler is certain.

In the following ZDF talk on “Lanz”, even a CDU Prime Minister shows sympathy for the tax.

Nouripour does not contradict Wissler either.

Rather, the Green leader announces a third relief package.

"An excess profit tax is certainly one of the most sensible measures to finance this," says Nouripour.

This corresponds to "the sense of justice in this country".

He is clear about this: "It cannot be that companies count their banknotes because of the shortage created by Russian politics." There will be meetings on the excess profit tax in the next few days and weeks.

"With an open outcome," emphasizes Nouripour.

Excess tax Zoff on ZDF: "There is no such thing!"

The employer representative Arndt Kirchhoff then burst the collar.

"It's a populist discussion," he scolds, addressing Janine Wissler: "Tell me: What is excess profit?

There is no such thing.” According to Kirchhoff, he fears the end for many medium-sized companies in the event of further burdens.

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Wissler reacts to the accusation, but has a hard time talking it out because Kirchhoff keeps interrupting him.

"What's a big profit?" he growls into the microphone, "we should talk about tax reductions".

Ultimately, Wissler can at least point out that other countries in the EU have also introduced the excess profit tax and one can “of course see how profits are developing compared to previous years”.

Jens Spahn then has a poison arrow in his quiver.

That's why, despite the advanced broadcasting time, he refuses to be dissuaded from speaking at a deliberately slow pace and almost exaggeratedly clearly to express that he misses one thing in the traffic light government: unity.

"However, a result has to be reached and that brings me to the last point: the finance minister and the economics minister of the Federal Republic of Germany, the industrial nation in the heart of Europe, a G7 state, in the middle of one of the greatest economic crises, are in daily arguments.

We need decisions on the relief.”  

Gas Talk at "Maybrit Illner": Netzagentur chief calls for winter "triad" for Germany

Maybrit Illner had previously asked Nouripour why there was only a surcharge for gas customers.

In other words: Why people who heat with other energy sources do not have to pay a surcharge.

Nouripour dodged, but now Klaus Müller, head of the Federal Network Agency, solves the riddle: “Because the price of oil has also risen sharply.

I think these people would find it very unfair if they had to pay a gas surcharge in addition to the increased oil prices.

The same goes for the people who have opted for solar thermal or woodchips.

They too would not consider it fair if they had to pay a surcharge for Russian gas.”

Müller is certain that Germany can survive the winter “only with a triad”: “By getting additional gas, by storing it and by saving.

At least 20 percent across all areas.

Then, with a bit of luck, if the winter stays normal, we'll be able to manage without a shortage."

At the end of the show, Eckart von Hirschhausen, who was on, wants to make the guests and viewers aware that climate change must remain the focus.

"The diagnosis has been clear for 50 years, but we got bogged down in therapy," says the doctor.

He emphasizes that gas is "a dirty way of generating energy".

For this, Hirschhausen reaped a collective nod from the group.

"The greatest burden on this planet is the climate crisis, which is not being fed in at the moment," warns Hirschhausen.

Conclusion of the "Maybrit Illner" talk

There is agreement that the Uniper rescue is necessary.

Contrary to expectations, it was not the gas surcharge that mutated into a major bone of contention, but rather the idea of ​​an excess profit tax.

This is where Janine Wissler and Arndt Kirchhoff come into conflict.

In a way, as a special guest who has five minutes of exclusive speaking time without discussion, Eckart von Hirschhausen calls attention to the climate crisis.

By then everyone will be of the same opinion.