But now - no! Or is it?
You can expect a certain degree of clarity from a government about what it intends to do. The traffic light coalition is currently failing to meet this minimum requirement. After the supposed agreement on the budget crisis, it is now going forwards, backwards and sideways. Who is supposed to keep up?
When Olaf Scholz, Christian Lindner and Robert Habeck appeared before the press last Wednesday, they conveyed the message: We have reached an agreement, the budget for 2024 is in place. A week later, it turns out that this was not the case and instead all sorts of things are once again in question.
Take agricultural diesel, for example: it was part of the agreement between the Federal Chancellor, Finance Minister and Economics Minister that farmers should pay more for diesel for their tractors, combine harvesters and other agricultural machinery in future. But then it turned out that Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir knew nothing about it. Criticism also came from the FDP parliamentary group. And the farmers got behind the wheel and drove their tractors towards Berlin. At the Brandenburg Gate, they protested against the planned tax increase. And Lindner? He was immediately ready to talk.
What now?
Take the kerosene tax, for example: to date there has been no kerosene tax in Germany, as in most other countries around the world. But that should change, or at least that's what was said last week. In future, a tax was to be levied on aviation fuel for domestic flights - this was also part of the agreement. However, unanswered questions then arose: for example, what about feeder flights. If an aircraft flies from a German regional airport to Frankfurt am Main, will it be taxed? What if a plane flies to the airport from a Belgian regional airport? Does it then not have to pay anything extra? There was a threat of unequal treatment here.
Now the surprise: the kerosene tax is not coming after all. Instead, the ticket tax on passenger flights is to be raised. This should raise the same amount as the kerosene tax would have done: 580 million euros.
Didn't FDP leader Lindner always say that there would be no tax increases with him? Are these not tax increases now? The Finance Minister has already commented on this question: The bottom line is that people would be relieved. That is what matters. You can argue that - but Lindner has always said before: No tax increases with the FDP! And not: Tax increases only on condition that the burden is reduced to a greater extent elsewhere!
If the government wants to regain trust, it would be helpful if people could still understand what it is doing. When Scholz, Habeck and Lindner announced the supposed agreement last week, one could have become suspicious. After all, they did name a few items that were to be cut or increased. However, there is still no list in black and white on which the bill can be traced.
We can expect clarity from the federal government, which is also in its own interest. What we are experiencing now, on the other hand, is a big mess.
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Despite the Traffic light coalition leaders, including Olaf Scholz, Christian Lindner, and Robert Habeck, claiming an agreement on the 2024 budget last week, confusion persists. The budgetary policy, including changes to agricultural diesel prices and the proposed kerosene tax, has resulted in numerous questions and criticisms, leading to a lack of clarity and understanding.
The conflicting messages from the coalition partners have raised concerns about the implementation of their budgetary policy, leading some to question the ability of the Traffic light coalition to effectively manage economic matters.
Source: www.ntv.de
