The parliamentary leader of the Union’s faction, Thorsten Frei, has rejected the criticism of the economic policy agenda 2030 of his party. The criticism alleged that the planned tax relief would cost nearly 100 billion euros and are financially unfeasible. Frei disagrees, stating that the claimed gap does not exist, and even if it did, it would not be real because some economists claim it is. He pointed to the planned relief on network charges and the reduction of the electricity tax, which would be financed through the CO2 surcharge.
Frei also mentioned the income tax reform, which he claimed had been thoroughly calculated, and would bring about a relief of up to 41 billion euros for the people, to be implemented in four stages. The economic growth would be stimulated in parallel, he added. “If they only adopt the first stage as of January 1, 2026, the relief effect would be around ten billion euros, with the federal budget covering half of that, which is five billion euros in a budget of approximately 475 billion euros” Frei calculated, concluding that it is not a “treppenwitz” to claim that such a measure is not financially viable if one wanted to make it a priority.
The Union is prepared to make political prioritizations, unlike the coalition government, Frei said, adding that they would say what is particularly important and where they see potential for cuts. He also clarified the proposal made by Union’s chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz to regulate social media platforms, stating that Merz had pointed out the need for rules in the digital sphere, just as in the normal, analog social setting. “In the digital area, we have these rules partly much too weakly developed” Frei said.
As a prominent example of a misdevelopment, Frei mentioned the decision of the Meta Corporation to discontinue fact-checking and moderation of content. “It’s not about censorship” he said, adding that the freedom of opinion should not be impaired. Instead, it is the “nucleus of freedom and democracy.” However, there are also limits, he said, citing “limits of insult” and “criminally defined limits.” These limits must also be enforced in the network.