The employer president? Has probably “not read” the Green election manifesto. CDU Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet? “Didn’t get it”. Robert Habeck presented himself in the ZDF “Morgenmagazin”. The Green chief defended his tax plans and backed Annalena Baerbock.
The image of the top candidate is tarnished, but the co-party leader seems combative like seldom. Connected to the ZDF “Morgenmagazin”, Robert Habeck vigorously defended the election program of the Greens that was decided on at the party congress at the weekend.
Top tax rate up, debt brake out, plus the new wealth tax and a rapid increase in the CO2 price: Confronted with criticism from employer president Rainer Dulge (“wild hodgepodge” of taxes and duties) and CDU chancellor candidate Armin Laschet (“socially incompatible”) on Green election program, Habeck countered with a laugh: “They haven’t read it, I think. They have to say that.”
The top tax rate, explained Habeck in an interview with moderator Dunja Hayali, should only rise to 48 percent from an annual income of 250,000 euros or more per person. “That is very, very high up. It will hardly affect people,” he said of the plans. In addition, the money is used to relieve people with lower incomes from tax: “The very good top earners then have to shell out a little more. All of this in proportion and not anti-social, but exactly the other way around,” said the Federal Chairman of the Greens.
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“Bring it on, Armin Laschet!”
He hopes the “readjustment of the debt brake” will have similar effects: Newly borrowed loans should only be taken out for the “creation of new values”, for example for the development of a climate-neutral infrastructure. In this sense, loans for investments would create an economic upswing that would then pay off the newly incurred debts.
Conversely, he sees the CDU and Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet in the prohibition trap in view of the climate targets: “If Laschet does not want to take the money in hand,” said Habeck, he could enforce climate policy “only through regulatory law”. “Then he can only say: Auto industry, steel industry, chemical industry, we won’t help you, but we will make the bans. Then the CDU is the ban party. Then: Bring it on, Armin Laschet!”, Concluded the Green leader.
“You are turning the game around with the bans,” said Dunja Hayali with amusement, referring to the image of the Greens as the supposed “prohibition party”. Habeck, however, insisted: “It’s just the truth, he didn’t understand it.” If Laschet does not want to reform the debt brake, he must prescribe climate protection by law or give it up. Habeck confidently: “What we propose is the very best means.”
Should Baerbock submit his candidacy for chancellor? Habeck: “Total chocolate!”
With regard to the additional costs that a company would have to cope with on the way to climate neutrality, Habeck promised: “You make so-called contract-for-differences contracts. That is, costs that go beyond the CO2 price can be reimbursed by the state. Costs that are below that are returned to the state in return. There is a price guarantee for the savings, so to speak. “
Most recently, Habeck spoke with the moderator Dunja Hayali about Annalena Baerbock’s candidacy for chancellor, which has noticeably lost momentum as a result of additional income and a résumé that had to be revised several times. Of course, the events of the past few weeks were “not good”. The demand that Baerbock should now hand over the candidacy to him is, however, “a lot of nonsense”. Habeck: “That’s natural, with all due respect, total Kokolores!”
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