The German Social Union (Sozialverband Deutschland) rejected a CDU economic council paper titled “Agenda for Employees” as anti‑social and “disturbing”. According to SVD chairman Michaela Engelmeier, the Union is routinely attacked and unsettled by union members. “The chancellor alleges that many celebrated their sickness, the middle‑class union thinks millions are simply joking about part‑time work, and now the CDU Economic Council turns up with the next unsettling idea” Engelmeier told the Funke Media group’s newspapers in the Saturday edition.
The paper contains proposals such as tax cuts for workers, which the Union would welcome “but not under the conditions of a cattle trade” Engelmeier added. She also criticised the plan to cut unemployment benefits from a maximum of two years to only one year, arguing it would leave millions, who have lost jobs without fault, in dire straits. The exclusion of dental care from public health insurance, according to Engelmeier, would fuel the already existing two‑tier medical system: “Affluent people will have beautiful teeth, the poor even more gaps”.
In sum, Engelmeier said these proposals merely deepen the erosion of our solidarity principle and undermine the welfare state. She called for sustainable reforms that are justly financed-such as reinstating a wealth tax, reforming inheritance tax, fair taxation of dividends, appropriate taxation of large corporations, and raising the top marginal rates for the wealthy and ultra‑wealthy.
