FDP politician does not rule out tax increases
Two long-held taboos of the FDP are wobbling after the ruling from Karlsruhe. Now that Lindner has cleared the way for a relaxation of the debt brake, tax increases are no longer being ruled out.
FDP budget expert Otto Fricke no longer wants to rule out tax increases from the outset in view of the budget crisis. "We will also have to talk about how we can improve revenue," the FDP member of parliament told Welt TV this afternoon. The desire for revenue improvements is being voiced in the coalition by partners SPD and the Greens. For the FDP, however, tax increases have so far been absolutely taboo. "Anyone who is already predicting what is not possible does not want to negotiate," said Fricke. Following the debt ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court, all parties in the coalition government must show a "willingness to compromise". What was needed now was "mutual concessions, but from all sides".
Fricke pointed out that revenue improvements do not automatically have to be accompanied by a tax increase. They could also be achieved by reviewing subsidies or a higher CO2 price. According to Fricke, this is better than tax increases with subsequent redistribution.
Fricke went on to say that the willingness to make difficult compromises that he had called for must apply to all partners in the coalition - especially in view of the SPD and Greens' demands that there should be no cuts in social spending such as citizens' benefits or basic child protection. The task of the "traffic light" is now: "We have to look at the same time: Can we really still do everything we wanted to do? Or do we have to cut back here?"
Kubicki against suspending the debt brake
Tax increases and the suspension of the debt brake have been taboos for FDP leader and Finance Minister Christian Lindner to date. However, as a consequence of the ruling from Karlsruhe, the coalition with the traffic light system wants to suspend the debt brake again this year. Lindner announced a supplementary budget for this on Thursday. With a supplementary budget for this year, the government will "propose a resolution to the Bundestag for the determination of an extraordinary emergency situation for 2023", Lindner wrote in the online service X. This is the prerequisite for suspending the debt brake. The SPD and Greens supported the decision.
There is already resistance to this within the FDP. FDP federal deputy leader Wolfgang Kubicki told the Funke newspapers that "in my view, such a step is difficult to explain". Although a renewed suspension of the debt brake is legally possible, it would create "considerable trust problems".
Instead, Kubicki called for a paradigm shift in budgetary policy. He said it was imperative to talk about reducing certain government spending. "The fact that we pay well over 30 billion euros for development aid, for example, is difficult to explain given the severity of the budgetary problem," said the Vice President of the Bundestag. However, Kubicki does not consider the FDP leaving the traffic light coalition. "The Free Democrats are not shirking their responsibility," he said.
The Federal Constitutional Court's ruling has forced the FDP to reconsider its stance on tax increases, with budget expert Otto Fricke no longer ruling them out due to the budget crisis. Meanwhile, FDP federal deputy leader Wolfgang Kubicki has expressed opposition to suspending the debt brake and called for a shift in budgetary policy to focus on reducing government spending.
Source: www.ntv.de
