Stay informed with free updates
Simply sign up German politics myFT Digest – delivered straight to your inbox.
Germany's conservatives will base their election campaign in early elections scheduled for February on a program of tax cuts and tightening restrictions on illegal immigration, according to a draft statement seen by the Financial Times.
The 79-page document promises “new policies…” . . This would ensure Germany's movement forward. “Our promise is: We will make sure that happens.”
The statement, which is scheduled to be formally revealed to the public on Tuesday, represents a surprising degree of continuity with Chancellor Olaf Scholz's policies, especially on issues such as providing military support to Ukraine.
But on immigration, the Conservatives promise a much tougher approach than the outgoing government. “We have to decide for ourselves again who comes to us and who can stay,” the statement read.
The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU) – collectively referred to as “the Union” – are in pole position to win the election, having achieved a significant lead in opinion polls over other parties.
Early elections became inevitable last month when Schulz withdrew his ruling coalition, which included the Social Democrats, Greens and liberals.
Schulz, who runs a minority government of the Social Democrats and the Greens, will face a vote of confidence in the Bundestag on Monday and is likely to lose; The president will then dissolve the legislature and schedule early elections.
Promising an “agenda for hard workers,” the draft election program of the CDU and CSU proposes income tax cuts for people with low and middle incomes, a cut in social security contributions and a gradual reduction in corporate taxes to 25 percent, from 25 percent to 25 percent. percent. About 30 percent now.
Both parties also want to completely scrap the Soleil tax, an additional levy on income tax first introduced in the 1990s to fund German reunification, as well as reinstate fuel subsidies for farmers, and cut value-added tax in the hospitality sector to 7 percent. percent – from 19 percent currently – and increasing inheritance tax allocations.
It is unclear how the federation plans to finance its tax giveaways. It remains committed to the “debt brake,” Germany's constitutional limit on new borrowing, which critics say imposes spending restrictions on the government at a time when the country needs huge investments in defence, infrastructure and the green transition.
“Today’s debts are tomorrow’s taxes,” the statement says.
Despite their often fiery attacks on Germany's culture of benefits, they do not propose any major changes to the welfare state. They reject cuts to the state pension and any increase in the retirement age – although they are in favor of an “active pension” that would allow anyone working beyond retirement age to earn up to €2,000 a month tax-free.
They want to cancel citizen's money, Or “citizen money,” a system of welfare payments to the poor that right-wingers say is akin to universal basic income. They want to replace it with a “new basic insurance” that will be denied to those who refuse job offers.
Unlike the Greens and Social Democrats, the CDU/CSU says nuclear energy should be an “option” for Germany, and supports research into small modular reactors and nuclear fusion. They also suggest scrapping the ban on petrol and diesel cars.
Regarding foreign policy, they say they are committed to the defense of Ukraine which must be supported “by diplomatic, financial and humanitarian means, as well as arms supplies”, and to “reviving our relations with France and Poland”.
The parties say Germany should spend at least 2 percent of its gross domestic product on the military, impose a mandatory year of service for young people – although they stop short of calling for a return to military conscription – and create a national security council based in Germany. Chancellery.
The union also says that if it comes to power, it would give law enforcement agencies the ability to return migrants to the border as a way to “stop illegal immigration” and would increase deportations of foreigners from German territory.
It also wants to see the introduction of a “third country model” in the EU whereby refugees' asylum claims are processed outside the bloc and they receive protection there.
The conservatives will also repeal a law enacted by Schulz's government that makes foreigners eligible for citizenship after living in the country for five years, and also allows dual citizenship.
“The German passport stands at the end of the integration process, not at the beginning,” the statement said.
