Christoph Ahlhaus, the chairman of the SME association BVMW, welcomed the failure of the planned relief premium. Speaking to the Funke media group’s newspapers, Ahlhaus stated that he was relieved that the Federal Council stepped in, effectively hitting the “emergency brake” on the measure. He noted that by doing so, the representatives of the federal states followed a “pressing appeal” to halt what he called a “coalition mess”. He argued that implementing the premium would have resulted only in new burdens for businesses, along with disappointment and suspicion within companies. The tax-free relief premium, which allows companies to pay employees up to €1,000, failed for the time being on Friday because the federal council unexpectedly disagreed with the draft law that had already been passed by the Bundestag.