The Union and the SPD want to talk again about the electricity tax reduction for everyone that has not yet been decided. Christian Haase, budget policy spokesperson for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, said on Friday in Berlin after the budget committee meeting that he sees the electricity tax issue “on the political agenda next week.” He added that, “theoretically,” there could be changes to the draft through special sessions. Thorsten Rudolph, budget policy spokesperson for the SPD parliamentary group, said that this would require a corresponding counter-financing. This would necessitate further cuts. Rudolph said, “and then if they can agree on that, they could certainly do something about the electricity tax and/or the cold progression.” The chairman of the CSU group in the Bavarian State Parliament, Klaus Holetschek, has meanwhile rejected demands to give up the controversial mothers’ pension in favor of an electricity tax reduction. Both projects are similarly expensive; young CDU members also criticize the CSU mothers’ pension project. Holetschek told the news channel “Welt” on Friday that he does not believe “it is good to play one justice issue against the other.” “This concerns 9 million mothers in this country who are waiting for it. It is also a promise in the coalition agreement. And I think that is the respect for these mothers that it requires. Implementing it is also already enshrined in law. So, I would not tamper with that now – and that would not solve our problem either.” CSU leader Markus Söder is “assertive” and has politically pushed through the mothers’ pension project, Holetschek finds. “This is an issue we promised in the election campaign. And I think it is good if we keep the things we promised and do not create expectations that we cannot meet.” Poll results for the CSU showed that it pays off “when one is stable, when one keeps one’s word, and when one includes the citizens where one makes promises and keeps them.”
Mixed
