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Merkel's prospective partners stand by tax-cut plans
(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-10-13 08:04
BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel's prospective new coalition partners insisted yesterday that they stand by their plan for tax cuts, a key campaign call, amid increasing doubts over whether it is affordable. Merkel, a conservative, won a center-right majority in last month's elections thanks in part to a strong performance by the pro-business Free Democrats - who advocated an income tax overhaul that would entail big cuts. Since coalition talks began a week ago, doubts as to whether the party can push through its demands have increased. In a weekend newspaper interview, senior Free Democrat Hermann Otto Solms was quoted as saying that billions need to be saved to keep a budget shortfall in check, which "limits the possibilities for extensive tax relief." His fellow leaders appeared keen to downplay those comments yesterday. "We need a tax reform - simpler, lower and fairer - to push forward domestic growth," Rainer Bruederle, widely tipped as a possible minister, told ARD Television. "There is room for maneuver - it is narrower than we would like, but it must be used: there must be (tax) relief." Party leader Guido Westerwelle told the Bild newspaper that "all our proposals ... remain on the table. We will negotiate calmly and objectively, but also with determination and insistence, so that there is a real new beginning in Germany." Merkel's Christian Democrats advocated only modest middle-income tax relief during the election campaign. Merkel herself has signaled that she wants to stick to the cautious, consensual stance that has made her popular over the past four years at the head of the outgoing "grand coalition" between her party and the center-left Social Democrats. She hopes to have the new government in place by early November. AP (China Daily 10/13/2009 page11) |
