Conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel's tax cuts are being criticized by her political rivals as unrealistic. Germany's political parties are trying to win voters' favor ahead of national elections in September. In the election program that Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) presented in Berlin on Monday, one particular issue has caused heated discussion: tax cuts. Merkel's current coalition partners, the Social Democrats SPD, have sharply criticized the program. The SPD's secretary general Hubertus Heil said the agenda "was not credible." He warned that "Merkel is either trying to pull the wool over the voter's eyes, or there really is no sound concept behind the whole thing." He said that the CDU's election program did not contain ideas on how to shape the country's future. With the country's budget set for a record deficit, any promise to lower taxes was simply "unrealistic."
In the election program that Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) presented in Berlin on Monday, one particular issue has caused heated discussion: tax cuts.
Merkel's current coalition partners, the Social Democrats SPD, have sharply criticized the program. The SPD's secretary general Hubertus Heil said the agenda "was not credible."
He warned that "Merkel is either trying to pull the wool over the voter's eyes, or there really is no sound concept behind the whole thing."
He said that the CDU's election program did not contain ideas on how to shape the country's future. With the country's budget set for a record deficit, any promise to lower taxes was simply "unrealistic."
Ever since the German presidential election result was posted on Twitter before being announced officially there has been growing concern that the September election could be influenced by leaked exit polls. Politicians and opinion pollsters are demanding pledges of secrecy and there are even calls to ban exit polls altogether. It was just after five o'clock in the evening when Chancellor Angela Merkel gathered the members of the executive committee of her conservative Christian Democrats in Berlin. The polling stations were still open, but the head of the party already knew that she had missed her election target. "We can safely assume that there will be no black-yellow majority," she said, referring to her preferred coalition of the CDU with the business-friendly Free Democratic Party (FDP). At the same time she gave the troops their orders for the hours to come. "We have the mandate to form the government."
Ever since the German presidential election result was posted on Twitter before being announced officially there has been growing concern that the September election could be influenced by leaked exit polls. Politicians and opinion pollsters are demanding pledges of secrecy and there are even calls to ban exit polls altogether.
It was just after five o'clock in the evening when Chancellor Angela Merkel gathered the members of the executive committee of her conservative Christian Democrats in Berlin. The polling stations were still open, but the head of the party already knew that she had missed her election target. "We can safely assume that there will be no black-yellow majority," she said, referring to her preferred coalition of the CDU with the business-friendly Free Democratic Party (FDP). At the same time she gave the troops their orders for the hours to come. "We have the mandate to form the government."
