CDU/CSU and SPD aiming to reschedule debate on electricity tax reduction
The Union and the SPD want to discuss the electricity tax reduction for everyone again, as it has not yet been decided.
Christian Haase, budgetary policy spokesman for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, said on Friday in Berlin after the budget committee's plenary session that he sees the electricity tax issue "back on the political agenda next week." "Theoretically," there could be changes to the draft through special sessions.
Thorsten Rudolph, budgetary policy spokesman for the SPD parliamentary group, told that this would, however, require countervailing financing. This would necessitate further cuts. "And then if they can agree on that, they could certainly do something about the electricity tax and/or the cold progression," Rudolph said.
Meanwhile, Klaus Holetschek, chairman of the CSU group in the Bavarian State Parliament, rejected demands to abandon the controversial parental allowance (Mütterrente) in exchange for an electricity tax reduction. Both projects are similarly expensive; criticism of the CSU project on the parental allowance has also come from young CDU members. Holetschek told the news channel "Welt" on Friday that he does not believe "it is good to play a justice issue against another one."
"This affects 9 million mothers in this country who are waiting for it. It is also a promise made in the coalition agreement. And I think that this is the respect these mothers deserve. The fact that we implement it is already enshrined in law. So, I would not tamper with that now-and that would not solve our problem either."
Holetschek stated that CSU boss Markus Söder is "highly determined" and has politically pushed through the parental allowance project-it must remain so. "This is an issue that we promised during the election campaign. And I think it is good if we keep the things we promised and do not raise expectations that we cannot meet." Poll results for the CSU showed that it pays off "when one is stable, when one keeps their word, and when one includes the citizens where they make promises and keep them."
