This Sunday, September 26th, the time has come: Germany will elect a new Chancellor. What can be expected from the individual parties with regard to their crypto ambitions and which party is most open to Bitcoin and Co.
Disclaimer: This article is the personal opinion of the author. There is no membership in a party.
Even if you shouldn’t make your voting decision solely dependent on a party’s crypto affinity, this can still help to reinforce existing tendencies. After all, it can be assumed that the crypto-economy will have a major impact on our economy and society in the future. The question of crypto-openness is therefore also about Germany’s future prosperity.
More control please
Regardless of which party, everyone agrees on one point when it comes to cryptocurrencies: The fear of money laundering and terrorist financing as well as the fear that private cryptocurrencies could undermine the state monopoly of money. Only the FDP is moderate here and renounces prohibition rhetoric, as is well known from the SPD chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz to stablecoins, for example.
Regardless of which government will be formed on Sunday, it can be assumed that Germany will regulate the crypto economy more than less. The global wave of regulation that we have been experiencing since spring this year has also left its mark on Germany.
CDU – blockchain yes, cryptocurrencies yes and no
As the current ruling party, the CDU launched the blockchain strategy in 2019. Blockchain technology is seen as having great potential and would like to promote it. However, only a few of the points listed in the strategy paper have been implemented satisfactorily. The CDU is fundamentally open-minded, but has so far lacked any pace in implementation.
The biggest partial success so far is the law on electronic securities (eWPG), which offers a (limited) framework for tokenized bonds. Better than nothing, but not a big hit either. However, there is very little to be found in the election program about crypto currencies, except that stricter KYC rules are required for crypto transactions (p.112 Election program). Tokenized securities and a tokenized e-euro (p.23 election program), on the other hand, seem to be the focus of the CDU and are advocated.
SPD – the main thing is not to privatize money
The SPD’s election manifesto lacks concrete statements on blockchain and crypto currencies. So it just says:
We reject the privatization of currencies. This also applies to private digital currencies whose value is kept artificially stable (stablecoins).
P. 24 Optional program
The fear of losing control seems to outweigh the will to innovate. Should Olaf Scholz become Chancellor, as is possible according to previous surveys, then the need to catch up in terms of blockchain and cryptocurrencies would be enormous.
Alliance 90 / The Greens – a lot of innovation with little freedom
Although the Greens strengthen the innovation potential of blockchain technology in their election manifesto, it is clear that the given openness is difficult to reconcile with the decentralized potential. One emphasizes the need to collect as much data as possible (p. 87 election program), which is likely to prove difficult, especially in the DeFi area.
However, the statement on page 92 of the election platform is likely to be particularly serious for crypto investors. It says there that you want to abolish the tax exemption for cryptocurrencies after the holding period. The party still leaves open what taxation should look like instead.
With regard to CBDC and stablecoins, there is a great deal of proximity to the SPD. So one also rejects the green stablecoins – here it is alluded to on Facebook Diem in particular:
We strictly reject the erosion of the monetary and currency monopoly by the private currencies of powerful large corporations.
P. 86 Optional program
It is not surprising, however, that they are clearly in favor of the e-euro (p. 86 f. Election program). One gets the impression that although one understands the importance of technological innovation – also specifically blockchain – one would like to keep this innovation under state custody. How such a competitive crypto industry should emerge in Germany remains unclear.
Especially since blockchain technology should only be used if it is not based on the proof-of-work mechanism, as is the case with Bitcoin. Concretely thought through to the end, this amounts to a Bitcoin ban through the back door. Although this is not explicitly stated in the election manifesto, some representatives of the Greens position themselves clearly against BTC. That’s what it says on the page of the Green politician Sven Giegold:
After a transition period, crypto service providers would have to keep their hands off large crypto assets that rely on unsustainable mining. This creates incentives, for example for large projects like Ethereum, to take the switch to sustainable mining seriously.
Blog post by Sven Giegold, Member of the European Parliament
If this proposal were actually implemented, then the German crypto service providers would no longer be allowed to offer Bitcoin – a policy that, with the other centralization tendencies, is strongly reminiscent of the Chinese model.
FDP – the outlier
The FPD differs most from the other parties in terms of its crypto-openness. The only party that emphasizes the opportunities of the DLT. Not only from CBDC, but also from private cryptocurrencies (p. 36 election program). Instead of bans and other restrictions, people speak out in favor of “zones of freedom” that are intended to promote key IT technologies such as blockchain.
Also at the request of BTC-ECHO, how one stands with regard to the “climate issue” to Bitcoin Mining, among other things, one is constructive:
So-called “mining” is energy-intensive, but in order to achieve our national and international climate protection goals, we will have to completely decarbonise our electricity generation by 2050 anyway. The energy consumption of individual technologies or sectors is then no longer relevant for climate protection […] .
FDP press officer Johannes Mellein
The FDP also refrains from penalizing the attractiveness of crypto currencies in Germany through restrictive taxation. In view of the increasing number of blockchain companies settling in Switzerland, especially Zug, this is not exactly an uncritical factor in order to avoid further migration of innovation to other jurisdictions.
Should the FDP top candidate Christian Lindner be appointed finance minister after the elections, then this would certainly be the best option for the crypto standard Germany.
The left – prohibit instead of promoting
Only two points related to crypto can be found in the election program: Stricter surveillance of crypto companies (p.91 election program) and a ban on crypto mining (p.101). The party proves in its answer to our separate request that the requested ban is not a misunderstanding. This is how Die Linke explains its stance towards BTC-ECHO:
Bitcoin in particular is known as a power guzzler and is incompatible with the goal of climate protection.
Editorial office election test stones – Die Linke
Further explanations on the mining topic were not sent to us – it looks different in terms of construction and differentiation.
AFD – cash above all
An even lower understanding of innovation than the Left Party can only be produced by the AFD. While the Left Party at least sees the need for a digital euro and supports it, the AFD also speaks out against the introduction of CBDC (p. 56 f. Election program). Not a single word is said about blockchain and cryptocurrencies. There is only one thing that you are sure of: the cash must be preserved. The fear of the new or the digital seems to be particularly entrenched here.
If you want to find out more about the individual “crypto passages” in the election manifestos of the parties listed, we recommend our current edition of the crypto compass. We have brought together all the relevant aspects there.