Greens to Focus on Affordable Energy, App for Government Services, and Investment Fund in Upcoming Election
Ahead of the federal election on February 23, 2025, the Greens will primarily focus on measures to make energy more affordable, an app for government services, and an investment fund. “We’ve made the energy clean in the last legislative period, and that will continue” said Green Party leader Robert Habeck at the presentation of the program draft on Tuesday. “Now, we’re making it affordable by removing the energy tax from the costs and reducing network charges, so a four-person family will save around €400 a year due to affordable energy.”
The measure is intended to boost demand for technologies like heat pumps and electric vehicles, as well as industrial value creation, and will also protect the climate. “And we will do that by protecting the climate. Three goals with one measure, I think that’s rare, so we’re putting a lot of emphasis on it” said Habeck.
The core of the program is an investment fund for the federal government, states, and municipalities. “The bridges that are crumbling, the train that is delayed, the schools that are not renovated, and the kindergartens that are not maintained. All of that will change through the Germany Integration Fund, which we want to establish” promised Habeck. The fund will also be used to stabilize pensions and support startup companies.
“Unlike our political competitor, our proposals are not unfunded – at least, we have named the sources of the money” said the Green Party politician in a jab at the Union’s election program, which the employer-friendly Institute of the German Economy (IW Cologne) has estimated will cost an additional €89 billion.
Unlike the Union, the Greens are committed to reforming the debt brake. More money will be raised from the G20’s trillionaire tax and reduced tax exemptions. “We’re closing the tax loopholes, from individual black labor to large tax savings models like share deals in real estate companies” said the economy minister.
“Second, we want the super-rich, the millionaires of this country, to be more involved in financing the costs, especially in the education sector” said Habeck. “I don’t understand how one can again make the mistake of saving the country at the expense of the weak. We won’t do that.” “And third, the large infrastructure investments, generation projects, energy grids, hydrogen grids, and the maintenance of the infrastructure that doesn’t fit into a legislative period, will be financed over the generations through a loan” said Habeck. “That requires a reform of the debt brake.”
The Green Party program includes some points that, according to Habeck, “are not classical green election program items.” For example, the party will subsidize the driver’s license for apprentices. “Our proposal is that, if the employer, the training company, puts in €500, the state will put in €1,000, so that people with long commutes in rural areas can afford the driver’s license, which has become quite expensive” he said.
Habeck also wants to take a clear stance against so-called “clankriminality” and increase the number of police personnel at the federal police by 1,000. In the residential sector, a premium for self-use is planned to support young people in buying a home. Additionally, the Green Party candidate announced that he will increase the flat rate for advertising expenses to €1,500, “so that about half of all taxpayers no longer need to submit receipts, and an alleviation effect will also be achieved.”
Habeck stated that Germany must reinvent itself again. “The stability of the German democracy is based on the social market economy. The social market economy, in turn, is based on a competitive economy, and the preconditions for this competitiveness have been under the wheels in recent years” said the Green Party leader.