Within the CDU there is growing dissatisfaction over how the government of Chancellor Friedrich Merz is approaching the planned large reforms. The chair of the CDU’s Labour Wing (CDA), Dennis Radtke, told the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” (Friday edition) that the “new Germany trend is alarming”.
According to an Infratest poll only 15 percent of citizens are satisfied with the federal government’s work. Radtke said that the “geopolitical challenges on one hand and the pressure to carry out structural reforms on the other are gigantic”. He stressed that it is therefore vital for the government to offer “leadership and guidance” in the coming weeks.
The discussion so far, however, gives the impression that “it is mainly workers who have to carry the main burden”. Yet, he argued, the very same workers currently face the greatest fear of inflation and a loss of living standards.
“We are fighting for the preservation of our democracy and for the basis of our prosperity” Radtke added, noting that he also serves on the European Parliament’s Committee and on the CDU’s federal board. He warned that calls for “more work and unilateral burdens on employees” cannot win the struggle. The mood must change before the state elections in eastern Germany in September, otherwise a “political doom” threatens.
Radtke calls on his party to make the task no easier. “With minor tweaks we will not be able to shoulder mammoth tasks” he said. To generate short‑term structural relief for workers and companies, his party will not “stand in front of the sacred cows” he added.
Other issues that must find their way onto the agenda include abolishing the exemption‑needs test for inheritance and gift taxes and introducing a tonnage tax for shipping companies. Radtke pointed out that in Germany roughly €400 billion changes hands each year through inheritance or gifts, yet only about a quarter of that is subject to taxation. He argues that the exemption‑needs test, which was meant to protect business continuity, “in practice often shields huge fortunes from fair tax participation”.
Similarly, Radtke said, “the tonnage tax is another absurd construct”. Instead of taxing actual profits, the system imposes flat rates per day and net tonne‑age, meaning “millions of euros in profits may trigger less than one percent in tax”.
