Klingbeil: “Need more money”
SPD wants to change the tax system
1/9/2023 5:53 p.m
A comprehensive tax reform has long been a matter close to the heart of the FDP. Now the Social Democrats want to take the big step. SPD leader Klingbeil refrains from details, but makes it clear that the state needs new money for investments after the multiple crises.
According to its chairman Lars Klingbeil, the SPD wants a realignment of German tax and financial policy in order to enable state investments in the future through fair burden sharing in view of the high spending during the crisis. The party wants to develop a concept for restructuring the tax system by its party conference at the end of the year. In order to keep Germany economically competitive, public and state investments are necessary in addition to numerous private ones.
“Everything has to be financed,” said Klingbeil after a meeting of the SPD leadership. Together with the co-chair of the SPD, Saskia Esken, he will head a commission that will develop proposals by the party congress. It is about how public money could be made available and how money could be distributed in this country.
“We have a year behind us in which we spent large sums of money to successfully combat crises. But the distribution and justice issues are now taking center stage,” said Klingbeil. You have to make sure that the enormous cost of the support measures for companies and private households “does not make such big holes in the budgets that we cannot invest in infrastructure, in education, in social affairs, in digitization”.
“Will convince the FDP in the end”
He did not comment on specific measures, such as tax increases or a wealth tax. The SPD had already advertised this in its 2021 federal election campaign. However, the coalition partner FDP rejected such plans during the coalition negotiations. However, Klingbeil was confident that the SPD would ultimately be able to convince its coalition partners, the Greens and the FDP, with good arguments. The point is to enable a functioning and active state that guarantees an economic basis for the future.
Klingbeil warned the FDP against further heating up the discussion about the nuclear phase-out. The traffic light coalition partners would have accepted Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s decision to leave by April 15 at the latest. “The debate is decided. The chancellor made a clear decision,” said Klingbeil. “I can only amicably recommend all coalition partners not to waste any more political energy on this issue. If we want Germany to remain a strong country, then we have to put the turbo on the expansion of renewables.”
Instead of conducting debates about yesterday’s energy policy, one must look ahead to the expansion of renewable energies. “We have to get even better there,” says Klingbeil. “The decision of the Chancellor stands.” The FDP has repeatedly called for the service lives of the three remaining nuclear power plants to be extended beyond April, citing security of supply as the reason for this.