Here is the economic program of the Semaforo government in Germany between Spd, Fdp and Verdi
Spd, Fdp and Verdi have found the right balance on debt, taxes and ecological transition for the birth of the Scholz government. All the details in the in-depth analysis by Pierluigi Mennitti from Berlin
Germany is heading towards a new political season. After the first round of preliminary polls, the SPD, the Greens and the Liberals have decided to officially open negotiations for the formation of the new government. It will be an unprecedented one for the country, a Semaforo coalition (in red, green, yellow colors of the three parties), which so far has been experimented with some success only at the regional level.
Three different political formations, with three stories and three different visions, have in recent days resolved the differences and found the ground on which to build a solid government alliance summarized in a slogan: start a decade of transformation, synthesizing market sensitivity, social attention and ecological transition towards a climate neutral society (and industry). According to the future protagonists, it is a question of making a Germany numb in the last years of the Merkel era make that leap of modernization necessary to face the challenges of the new times.
Beautiful words. But it is true that Olaf Scholz succeeded in just a week what Angela Merkel, four years ago, had not succeeded in a longer time: to bring together environmentalists and liberals around his leadership, without showing favoritism and without penalizing anyone.
And so the enthusiastic words with which the representatives of the two “minor” parties, which are no longer so much minors, uttered in the press conference in which the passage from the polls to the negotiation was announced are almost surprising.
Above all, the liberal Christian Lindner, who was initially more inclined to try a tripartite with the CDU instead of the SPD, seemed convinced of the path he had taken and repeatedly thanked future partners for "the constructive commitment shown in the preliminary talks".
Technically, the leaders of the three parties have drawn up a common document, with which they ask their management bodies for the go-ahead for government negotiations. The SPD set the example, and within a few hours it gave its yes. The others should arrive at the latest within the first days of next week, immediately after the decisive matches will start. There are no fears of surprises and today in Berlin political circles the impression prevails that everything can develop faster than expected: the first Scholz-led Semaphore government could be born before Christmas.
The first rumors about some points of agreement have also been leaked, which will be poured into the executive's program. At a first evaluation, each party was able to insert the main themes of their respective electoral campaigns: a circumstance that on the one hand confirms the constructiveness and mutual trust with which the preliminary polls were conducted, on the other, however, underlines how much work still remains to be done. to do to amalgamate everything in the promised modernization program.
The agreement on raising the minimum wage to 12 euros per hour from the current 9.50 euros has the mark of the SPD. But the confirmation of the maintenance of the debt ceiling must be ascribed to the liberals. Also of the FDP type are the promise not to raise taxes in the next four years, measures for de-bureaucracy, as well as the refusal to impose the speed limit of 130 kilometers per hour, one of the symbols of the Green campaigns. However, they are stealing the acceleration of the coal spill compared to 2038 set by the Grosse Koalition: there is also mention of a date, 2030. In nine years.
Without tax increases and with the commitment to maintain the debt ceiling, it will take some effort to find the billions that the new government says it wants to commit to the climate transition and climate protection measures, through an expansion of the use of clean energy sources. As is the case with digitization, an issue that will be the subject of further negotiations and which so far seems to have been confined to measures to modernize the public administration.
The impetus for reform will stop in front of state pensions, which will not be reduced or provide for changes in the age of access, while the two left parties have undertaken to evaluate hypotheses of encouraging alternative private insurance forms.
For one of the problems that distress entrepreneurs and artisans, the lack of skilled labor, the future government should create a sort of points system to facilitate entry from abroad, while the term "race" will be removed from the text of the constitution.
There is also a wave of youthfulness: the program will include the extension of the vote to sixteen year olds.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/governo-semaforo-germania-programma-economico/ on Sat, 16 Oct 2021 06:37:48 +0000.