Germany’s CDU to offer voters tax cuts and immigration controls

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Germany’s conservatives will campaign in February’s snap election on a platform of tax cuts and tougher controls on illegal immigration, according to a draft manifesto seen by the Financial Times.

The 79-page document promises “new policies . . . that will ensure Germany moves forward. And our promise is: we will make sure that happens”.

The manifesto, due to be formally unveiled to the public on Tuesday, marks a surprising degree of continuity with the policies of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, especially on issues such as providing military support to Ukraine.

But on immigration, the conservatives promise a much tougher approach than that of the outgoing government. “We must decide ourselves once again who comes to us and who can stay,” the manifesto said.

The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU) — often collectively referred to as the “Union” — are in pole position to win the election, having established a commanding poll lead over the other parties.

Early elections became inevitable last month when Scholz pulled the plug on his ruling coalition of Social Democrats (SPD), Greens and liberals.

Scholz, who runs an SPD-Green minority government, will face a confidence vote in the Bundestag on Monday which he is likely to lose; the president will then dissolve the legislature and schedule early elections.

Promising an “agenda for hard-workers”, the CDU/CSU’s draft election programme proposes cuts to income tax for people on low and middle-incomes, a reduction in social security contributions and a gradual decline in corporate taxation to 25 per cent, from about 30 per cent now.

The parties also want to completely abolish the “Soli”, a surcharge on income tax that was first introduced in the 1990s to pay for German reunification, as well as restoring fuel subsidies for farmers, reducing value added tax in the hospitality sector to 7 per cent — from 19 per cent currently — and raising allowances for inheritance tax.

It is unclear how the Union plans to fund its tax giveaways. It remains committed to the “debt brake”, Germany’s constitutional cap on new borrowing, which critics say imposes a spending straitjacket on government at a time when the country requires huge investments in defence, infrastructure and the green transition.

“The debts of today are the taxes of tomorrow,” the manifesto says.

Despite their often fiery attacks on Germany’s benefits culture, they do not propose any major changes to the welfare state. They reject cuts to the state pension and any increase in the retirement age — though they advocate an “active pension” that would allow anyone working beyond retirement age to earn up to 2,000 euros a month tax-free.

They do want to abolish the Bürgergeld, or ‘citizen’s money’, the system of welfare payments to the poor which rightwingers say resembles universal basic income. They want to replace it with a “new basic insurance” which would be denied to those who reject offers of work.

Unlike the Greens and the SPD, the CDU/CSU says nuclear energy should be an “option” for Germany, and supports research into small modular reactors and nuclear fusion. They also propose a reversal of the ban on petrol and diesel cars.

In terms of foreign policy, they say they are committed to the defence of Ukraine which must be supported with “diplomatic, financial and humanitarian means, as well as weapons supplies”, and to “reviving our relations with France and Poland”.

The parties say that Germany should spend a minimum of 2 per cent of its GDP on the military, introduce an obligatory year of service for young people — although they stop short of demanding a return to military conscription — and create a national security council based in the chancellery.

The Union also says that if it comes to power it will give law enforcement agencies the ability to turn migrants back at the border as a means of “stopping illegal immigration”, and will increase deportations of foreigners from German soil.

It also want to see the introduction of a “third state model” in the EU whereby refugees would have their asylum applications processed outside the bloc and receive protection there.

The conservatives would also abolish a law enacted by the Scholz government that makes foreigners eligible for naturalisation after living in the country for five years, and also allows dual citizenship.

“The German passport stands at the end of the process of integration, not at the start,” the manifesto says.