As the ongoing recession persists, SPD leader Lars Klingbeil is advocating for state investments. “There is not enough investment, and purchasing power is only slowly recovering after a phase of inflation” Klingbeil told the Bayern media group’s newspapers (Thursday editions). “But the problems are solvable if we act decisively and quickly.” He emphasized the need for secure jobs and new growth, stating that this would require “much more investment.” To ensure everyone benefits, Klingbeil also called for “targeted tax cuts for the majority.”
FDP leader Christian Lindner, on the other hand, is concerned about the decline in Germany’s GDP for the second year in a row, fearing the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs. “Germany’s economy is suffering from a dramatic structural weakness” Lindner said in an interview with the newspapers. “For the people in our country, this means that over the next few years, tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of jobs could be at risk.”
Lindner called for the courage to implement market-oriented reforms, drastic bureaucratic cuts, and a social policy that quickly gets people back to work, in order to regain the country’s international competitiveness. He also used the numbers to launch an attack on the SPD and the Greens. “With ever more bureaucracy, rising taxes, and a few subsidies for handpicked companies, as proposed by the SPD and the Greens, we will not be able to overcome this challenge” Lindner said.