As of: February 22, 2024, 11:13 a.m
By: Nail Akkoyun
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The Growth Opportunities Act provides political fuel.
Söder criticizes the traffic light coalition, Habeck calls for an end to the blockade by the Union.
Berlin/Stockholm – The dispute over the Growth Opportunities Act is entering the next round.
While the Union rejected the planned package on Wednesday (February 21) despite a mediation committee, CSU boss Markus Söder added clear words on top of that.
“It’s a small law anyway.
It won’t have a big impact,” said Söder on Thursday (February 22) on the sidelines of a three-day trip to Sweden.
Bavaria would have liked to have had a comprehensive growth opportunities law - with an abolition of solidarity, with a corporate tax reform, with lower energy taxes.
But “unfortunately the traffic lights remained stubborn,” said Bavaria’s Prime Minister.
There were “no real concessions” on the part of the traffic light coalition, especially when it came to the dispute over agricultural diesel – the Federal Council would therefore “under no circumstances” agree to the draft.
Söder shoots against Habeck: “Capitulation to economic policy”
“I am particularly disappointed in my SPD state colleagues who have very openly supported agriculture at demonstrations and have now simply backed out when things get serious,” said Söder.
He further attacked Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens), “who basically represents capitulation to economic policy.”
Habeck's statement (“We just hope that things will get better”) does not do justice to Germany's claim as an economic nation.
Meanwhile, Habeck has called on the Union to end the blockade.
“Listen to the business associations and finally give the Growth Opportunities Act the green light,” said the Vice Chancellor in the Bundestag on Thursday.
Habeck criticized that the Union's proposals for more growth would result in tax losses of 45 to 50 billion euros in the budget - but the Union has no concepts for counter-financing and at the same time wants to comply with the debt brake.
This is “voodoo financial policy”.
Habeck presented the annual economic report on Wednesday.
The federal government is only expecting mini-growth of 0.2 percent this year.
Habeck once again referred, for example, to weak world trade, which is putting a strain on the German economy, which has strong exports.
He cited the shortage of skilled workers as the biggest structural problem.
Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) accused the Union of refusing to respond to the German economy's calls for relief and growth impulses.
Dispute over agricultural diesel subsidies: growth package in jeopardy
Even after a meeting of the mediation committee of the Federal Council and the Bundestag, it is unclear whether the Union will agree to the growth package in the Bundesrat on March 22nd.
The votes of the Union countries are necessary for this.
The Union is making its approval conditional on the cancellation of agricultural diesel subsidies in another law already passed by the Bundestag.
The volume of the growth package, which, among other things, provides tax relief for companies, was significantly reduced in the mediation process - countries had previously complained about high revenue losses.
Originally, it was supposed to be an all-round blow worth billions for all industries, which would provide relief for companies in the economic downturn and encourage investments in climate protection.
Lindner had proposed almost 50 tax policy measures.
Essentially: a bonus for climate protection investments, plus tax support for research, better offsetting of losses and the reduction of bureaucratic hurdles.
The Federal Council blocked the package passed by the Bundestag with the argument that states and municipalities would have to shoulder a large part of the costs and tax losses.
The state chamber therefore called the mediation committee.
In initial discussions, the negotiating partners reduced the volume of relief from the previously planned seven billion euros annually to 3.2 billion euros.
Basically, all that was left was a light version - primarily tax relief and incentives to stimulate the construction industry.
The climate protection investment bonus, originally the core of the law, has been overturned.
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Showdown in the Federal Council: economic pressure as a traffic light trump card?
There will now be a new vote in the Federal Council on March 22nd - a showdown, so to speak.
Voting takes place again here.
The states must agree to the law for it to come into force.
The traffic light partners called on the Union to think twice about its vote.
The calculation of the SPD, Greens and FDP is: There will be immense pressure from business on the Union to agree in the end.
However, the traffic light is also taking a risk with its approach to the mediation process: If the Union remains tough and all Union-led countries stick together, the relief plans could fail - given the economic downturn, this could be a fatal signal to the economy that politics is not being taken into account can leave more.
(nak/dpa)