AfD Leader Promises Radical Tax Cuts, but Fails to Provide Specifics on Funding
In an interview with ARD’s “Tagesthemen”AfD leader Alice Weidel promised radical tax cuts, but refused to provide a specific plan for how her party would fund these reductions. When asked about the financial implications of her party’s planned tax cuts, Weidel replied that the party would need to reduce expenditures and claimed that this could be achieved by switching from direct payments to service-based benefits.
Weidel did not provide a specific figure, but suggested that the government was wasteful in its spending, citing the need to “stop giving millions to foreign citizens for social benefits and health insurance.”
The German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) has estimated that the AfD’s election promises would result in a shortfall of around 181 billion euros in the budget, a claim that Weidel dismissed as “highly unprofessional.”
The current government, according to Weidel, is incapable of managing the country’s finances and suggested that drastic spending cuts were necessary. She also called for the expansion of nuclear energy, stating that the current energy providers were unable to make a profit due to government subsidies for renewable energy.
Weidel’s claims were met with skepticism by the Leibniz-Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung (ZEW) in Mannheim, which found that the AfD’s tax plans would actually lead to a net loss of 440 euros per year for individuals with a gross income of around 40,000 euros, while those with an income of around 180,000 euros would gain an additional 19,190 euros per year.
The AfD leader’s proposals for the energy sector have also been met with criticism, with experts arguing that the party’s plan to scrap the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) and promote nuclear energy would lead to a loss of investment in renewable energy and a reliance on a single, high-risk energy source.