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FDP budget politician Otto Fricke
Photo: IMAGO / IMAGO/Political-Moments
FDP budget expert Otto Fricke no longer wants to categorically rule out tax increases in view of the budget crisis. "We will also have to talk about this part, how we improve revenues," the FDP member of the Bundestag told the broadcaster Welt TV on Friday. The desire for revenue improvements is expressed in the coalition by the partners SPD and Greens. For the FDP, however, tax increases have been absolutely taboo until now.
"Anyone who says in advance what is not possible does not want to negotiate," said Fricke. After the debt ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court, all traffic light parties would have to show a "willingness to compromise". What is needed now is "mutual concession, but from all sides."
Fricke pointed out that revenue improvements do not automatically have to go hand in hand with a tax increase. They could also be achieved by reviewing subsidies or a higher carbon price. In Fricke's own words, this is better than tax increases followed by redistribution.
Lindner publicly opposes tax increases
Fricke went on to say that the willingness to make difficult compromises that he had called for must apply to all partners in the coalition – especially in view of the demands of the SPD and the Greens that there should be no cuts in social expenditure such as citizens' allowance or basic child support. The task of the "traffic light" is now: "At the same time, we have to see: Can we really still do everything we wanted to do? Or do we just have to cut corners here?"
Finance Minister and FDP leader Christian Lindner, on the other hand, had clearly rejected tax increases the day before. Lindner told the Handelsblatt newspaper on Thursday that it was now necessary to make consistent savings. Lindner, on the other hand, categorically rejected tax increases. "In a phase of low economic dynamism, the aim must be to ease the burden on citizens and companies. That's what this federal government stands for."
beb/dpa