The finance minister of Baden-Württemberg, Bayaz, wants to counteract the financial burden of the Ukraine war with “war solos”. His counterpart Lindner rejects this and instead pleads for “more growth impulses, more start-ups, more overtime”. This has met with severe criticism.
Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner has rejected the call for “war solos” by his counterpart in Baden-Württemberg, Danyal Bayaz. The FDP chairman warned that massive tax increases such as “war solos” could strangle economic development. “We need more growth impulses, more start-ups, more overtime to ensure our prosperity. Tax increases would sabotage the strengthening of the economic situation,” he said.
Because of the great burden of the Ukraine war and the corona pandemic, Bayaz believes tax increases after the crisis are unavoidable. “Why not something like a war solo in such a difficult time,” the Green politician said on Thursday on SWR. The traffic light has ruled out tax increases in its coalition agreement. But once this crisis is over, the question must be answered as to who will foot the bill for the aid packages and the special fund for the Bundeswehr. Bayaz, for example, advocated reducing the exemptions from inheritance tax and spoke out against Lindner’s plans to soften the so-called cold progression for the rich. This tax relief should only benefit small and middle incomes.
Lindner continued: “We are in a fragile situation. On the one hand, people fear that inflation will not be able to pay for their lives. On the other hand, an economic crash must be prevented.” Compliance with the debt brake is an important contribution to combating inflation. “The interest rates, which are also rising sharply for Baden-Württemberg, should prompt my esteemed colleague not to recommend any new debt to the federal government,” said the FDP politician.
The Green Vice-President of the Bundestag, Katrin Göring-Eckardt, considers the proposals of her party colleague Bayaz to be good. “The Federal Minister of Finance shouldn’t simply wipe them away,” criticized Göring-Eckardt. “Wealth obliges. This principle should apply more strongly again.” A necessary redistribution of the hardships of the crises also includes targeted relief.
The Left Group is critical of Lindner’s call for more overtime. “German stock corporations are paying a total of 70 billion euros in dividends this year, more than ever before. And Christian Lindner is calling for more overtime to stabilize the economy,” said Jan Korte, parliamentary director of the Left parliamentary group in the Bundestag. “Perhaps his coalition partners, the SPD and the Greens, should remind him that the people, not the corporations, voted for them.” A spokesman for the SPD-led Federal Ministry of Labor now commented that “from our point of view an increase in overtime is not being discussed”.
