Whoever wins the Bundestag election on Sunday, he or she needs a little “Gerhard Schröder reloaded”. One “Agenda 2030”, as currently required by employers. An emergency program against over-bureaucratization, under-digitization, the aging of society, climate fiasco and the dissolution of multilateralism. It should contain many of the items we list in our multi-faceted weekend title.
1. A CO2 price is determined that correctly includes the social costs of environmental damage, but the EEG surcharge will soon be dropped.
2. International cooperation in “climate clubs”, for example to advance the infrastructure for green hydrogen, is being strengthened. A CO2 border adjustment for products from countries that put environmental protection down and thus practice price dumping is introduced.
3. Social policy will be geared more towards the economic performance of the individual and pensioners will also be involved in old-age security in the interests of intergenerational equity.
4. Investments are made in education and training so that as few as possible work at the minimum wage level. The digitization of schools is being driven forward, and business and software / media are being introduced as new school subjects.
5. The state pays energy-intensive industries reliable aid in order to better finance the construction of new plants.
6. Globalization will be maintained, at the same time a minimum reserve of important resources and materials will be built up in the sense of European sovereignty.
7. A future fund will be established that will compensate for obvious gaps in infrastructure investments – such as digitization – and support mature start-ups. Remote areas are supplied with fast internet via satellite technology.
8. In data protection, standards are set beyond the local authorities and the individual authorities and an “open data culture” is established. Approval procedures are accelerated, and the rights of appeal of residents and environmental associations are bundled.
9. The solidarity surcharge, which has become obsolete, will be abolished, the income tax scales that burden low and middle incomes will be reformed – as will the inheritance tax.
10. A new investment rule is introduced which enables future expenditures to be financed via credit independently of the debt brake. Investments in climate protection and digitization are generously written off.
11. A permanent crisis council for recording and combating pandemics will be established at the Federal Chancellery, and a national security council for foreign policy crises will be established.
Let’s see when the future begins in the Berlin Spreebogen after the coalition tussle that is to be expected. Armin Laschet can only hope that Shakespeare is right: “If you don’t know where you want to go, you can get the furthest.”
(Photo: Dominik Butzmann for Handelsblatt)
Clear words about the election campaign come from Allianz boss Oliver Bäte. It was “incredibly frustrating”, he says in an interview with my colleagues Sebastian Matthes and Christian Schnell. Too much has been said about justice, too little about inflation and record social spending: “It is not clear to many that Germany’s business model is at stake.”
If we make mistakes with the energy conversion, says Bäte, “the economic crisis is inevitable”. Above all, the costs of the green conversion would be underestimated. The head of the Munich financial giant: “There would have to be a lot of private capital, but there is no regulatory concept for that.”
It is fair to speculate in which of the larger parties the self-tearing after election Sunday will be greatest. For me, the Union is a clear favorite because it only exists on paper. And that must always be rewritten between the legally separate parties CDU and CSU. The prevented Chancellor candidate Markus Söder demonstratively does not stay in Munich on Sunday, as is usual on such election days. Rather, he travels to Berlin, possibly to make the CDU dance too.
On Tuesday it’s about the free choice of the parliamentary group leader. Even if Söder victim Laschet arrives first on Sunday evening with around 25 percent, “Jamaica” will be difficult. Because there are four parties at work: CDU, Greens, FDP – and CSU.
In addition: Since the Christian Socialists in Bavaria will get many direct mandates, but will remain well below 30 percent nationwide, the number of Bundestag members could increase from 709 today to well over 800 due to the necessary compensation mandates.
In short: life would be easier if the CSU continued as a CDU regional association at some point.
Every crisis needs an example. An educational measure as a warning not to overdo it. In the financial crisis of 2008 the example was called Lehman Brothers. Now it could be called Evergrande.
According to a report in the “Wall Street Journal”, authorities in Beijing are preparing local governments for a possible crash of the Chinese real estate company. He has 300 billion dollars in debt, which corresponds to two percent of the gross domestic product. Everyone should be prepared for a “possible storm”. If Evergrande were to fail, the administration would have to fix the consequences “in an orderly manner” – but only intervene “at the last minute”. Unfortunately, you never know when it came or if it won’t get worse.
My cultural tip for the weekend: “Kairos” by Jenny Erpenbeck, a GDR cultural elite novel about an “amour fou” that is fed from two cardboard boxes and a suitcase full of memories. In the years before and after the fall of the Wall, wild love took place between the young set designer Katharina and the married writer Hans, who was 34 years older than him – but also between a system frozen in rites and a paradisiacal idea called communism.
They all miss the right, happy moment, for which the god Kairos stands, in this end time piece. The relationship disappears, despite erotic photos and whips on the backside, just like the Soviet satellite state, which is no longer helped by a billion-dollar loan from the West.
And then there is the EU Commission, which has a good plan: a common charging cable for smartphones, tablets, game consoles and headphones of all brands. In their new 18-page guideline, it says that consumers would save around 250 million euros annually. In addition, you can reduce electrical waste. The EU will switch to USB-C cables, which are currently used by Android mobile phones, in 2024 at the earliest.
But the Apple company does not like Brussels’ plan: it uses its own “Lightning” standard for charging cables. You often use different charging cables for your own equipment. Commission Vice-President Margrethe Vestager: “We have given industry enough time for its own solutions. Now the time is ripe for the legislature. ”The rule here is: the more resistance, the more progress.
I wish you a relaxing weekend with acceptable electoral debates.
I warmly greet you
you
Hans-Jürgen Jakobs
Senior editor
You can subscribe to the Morning Briefing here: