INSM allegations against Greens Inaccurate to wrong

Status: 14.06.2021 10:22 a.m. INSM lobbyists want to brand the Greens as a supposed “prohibition party” – and list everything that could be prohibited under their government. But the allegations are only half done, as a dpa fact check shows. With advertisements in daily newspapers and on German media websites, the lobby organization Initiative Neue Soziale Marktwirtschaft (INSM) is targeting the election program of the Greens and their candidate for Chancellor Annalena Baerbock. The company, which is financed by the employers’ associations in the metal and electrical industry, lists several topics on which the Greens allegedly wanted to tame the Germans with bans. “All bans can be substantiated by the green draft program,” tweeted the INSM. But is that really true? The German Press Agency has examined four allegations more closely.

No new registrations from 2030

ALLEGED DEMAND: “You are not allowed to drive an internal combustion engine.” EVALUATION: Wrong. FACTS: The Greens election program for the federal election in 2021 stipulates that from 2030 there will no longer be any new registrations for cars with internal combustion engines. However, the party does not call for a ban on existing vehicles of this type of drive. Such vehicles are likely to exist for much longer, because according to a study from 2020, cars on German roads are on average 9.6 years old. On the way to climate neutrality, which the current federal government (without participation of the Greens) has decided for 2045, Baerbock’s party is betting on a quota for “emission-free cars”. In addition, the motor vehicle tax should make vehicles with internal combustion engines more expensive. In its more detailed explanations of the campaign, the INSM classifies this accordingly on its website, but massively shortens the topic in its striking thesis. The Greens also encourage “car-free city centers and districts”. Driving there would actually be prohibited – regardless of the drive.

06/13/2021

Ban on night flights

ALLEGED CLAIM: “You are not allowed to fly.” EVALUATION: Wrong. FACTS: The Greens aim to reduce air traffic. The party only becomes clear in the election manifesto with regard to short-haul and night flights. Short-haul flights should not be banned, but rather become “superfluous” by the expansion of rail traffic by 2030. In mid-May, Baerbock said: “There should be no more short-haul flights in perspective.” In fact, according to the election manifesto, the Greens want to ban night flights – for reasons of noise protection. The INSM shortens the statement here too. In the explanations on its website, the initiative only speaks of a “total moral ban”. By the way: CDU Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet has recently been open to renouncing domestic German flights – if there are appropriate alternatives.

Criticism of agreements

ALLEGED CLAIM: “You are not allowed to participate in free trade.” EVALUATION: Inaccurate. FACTS: An essential part of the idea of ​​free trade is the dismantling of trade barriers, which may well include social or environmental standards. The Greens really do not want open markets without any regulations. In the party’s election manifesto, however, it says: “We want (…) trade agreements that serve the prosperity of all people, demand environmental and climate protection and strengthen relationships with our partners in the fight for democracy and freedom.” For this reason, a planned free trade agreement between the EU and the Latin American trade association Mercosur is rejected, and the Ceta agreement between the EU and Canada is not supposed to be ratified “in its current form”. But even the INSM advocates restrictions, even though it obviously sets different priorities than the Greens: According to the lobby organization, “new legal standards, for example in the area of ​​investment protection”, should be developed for free trade agreements.

Top earners should pay more

ALLEGED CLAIM: “You are allowed to keep even less of your money, even though you are already paying high taxes.” EVALUATION: Partly wrong. FACTS: According to the Greens’ plans, there should actually be higher taxes for top earners, but in return the party wants to relieve those on low to middle incomes. Specifically: The election program provides for single persons with a taxable income of more than 100,000 euros per year to raise the tax rate to 45 (instead of the previous 42) percent. For incomes of more than 250,000 euros, it should increase to 48 percent. At the same time, the basic tax-free allowance – i.e. the tax-free part of income – is to be increased, which in turn is more likely to benefit people with lower wages. According to calculations by the employer-related Institute of the German Economy (IW) in Cologne, all singles with an income of up to 80,000 euros per year would pay less tax in the future if these plans were implemented. According to IW data, this means relief for the bottom 95 percent of incomes.

Sharp criticism of the campaign

The INSM campaign has been massively criticized for days. Chancellor candidate Baerbock is portrayed as Moses, above it is written “We do not need a state religion”. The Berlin anti-Semitism commissioner, Samuel Salzborn, said of the ad: “An election campaign is an election campaign, no question – but also and especially in times when there is heated political debate, chains of associations that accept anti-Semitic allusions are fatal.” The “Moses analogy, the reference to the strict religion of the law, the term ‘state religion’ – all of this arouses anti-Jewish stereotypes in the metaphor that are fatal in the political debate – regardless of any difference in content,” said Salzborn.

analysis 06/13/2021

The Greens and the Economy relationship status complicated

Status: 11.06.2021 5:19 p.m.

For a long time eco-party and industry could not go together. In the meantime, both sides have grown closer. But the relationship remains difficult: many companies are critical of the election manifesto. By Björn Dake, ARD capital studio Leuna Chemical Park in Saxony-Anhalt. Robert Habeck is standing on a construction site wearing a white hard hat. A new system for epoxy resin is being built here – including for wind turbine rotor blades. The Green boss listens with interest and keeps asking questions. As a farewell, the boss of the chemical park operator Infraleuna, Christof Günther, gives him a book and says: “We would of course be happy if you might honor us again in a different role.” The chemical industry is looking for contact with the Greens. Who knows if they won’t be in the federal government in a few months and Habeck will be a minister?

End of an enmity

Habeck is still party leader of the Greens alongside Annalena Baerbock. And as such, he seeks proximity to industry: “Chemistry has to become climate-neutral. The best way to do that is to talk to chemistry.” When visiting the election campaign in Leuna, there was no sign of fear of contact. Not anymore, as Habeck emphasizes: “The old hostility, greens and chemistry, where it used to be said: Close everything so that the environment is clean – it has long since become a constructive, creative, searching relationship with one another.”

Lobbyists are lining up

Dieter Janecek is responsible for this relationship. He is the industrial policy spokesman for the Green parliamentary group in the Bundestag. As the MP from Munich reports, the lobbyists are standing in line with him. Almost 50 percent of the election campaign dates are company visits. Many companies also wanted to show what problems they have with the energy transition. According to Janecek, the relationship is not free of tension. For example, the will be discussed The amount of the CO2 price and the question of what the state and what the market regulates. However, he sees the networking between the Greens and business at a high point. Ex-Siemens boss Joe Kaeser will speak at the federal delegates’ conference on the weekend. So are the bosses campaigning for the Green Chancellor candidate Baerbock?

Industry is critical of the election program

Joachim Lang from the Federation of German Industries does not want to make an election recommendation. He also says that relations with the Greens have improved. According to him, the party leadership has begun to be interested in the economy. He is all the more astonished by the Greens’ party program. The BDI chief executive calls it “a tribute to the left party base”. Lang accuses the Greens of wanting to replace the social market economy with state control and redistribution. He means, for example, rent ceilings, a higher top tax rate and a wealth tax.

Economy demands faster climate decisions

The industry association thinks it is good that the Greens want to push investments. In the draft of the election manifesto, on which the Greens delegates will vote on the weekend, there is talk of investments amounting to 50 billion euros per year. The money is to be spent on fast internet, rail expansion, research and urban development. This is to be financed primarily through loans. Regardless of who will rule after the federal election – the industry wants planning security in climate policy. Lang says: “Every new federal government will have to find clear, new decision-making paths because we no longer have the time for the previous decision-making paths.”

Weak economic literacy in state elections

Back in Saxony-Anhalt. Habeck is campaigning in the beer garden on the Peißnitzinsel in Halle. He stands in the shade of some trees and reports on his visit to Leuna. His conclusion: The contrast between climate protection and the economy has always been “stupid”. Climate protection is economic policy and location policy. There is applause from around 100 listeners. But in the state elections in Saxony-Anhalt last Sunday, the Greens won only a few votes. The election analysis shows that the economy and jobs remain weak points for the party. The pollsters of Infratest dimap measure the lowest competence values ​​here.

Clarification from Brinkhaus Petrol is also becoming more expensive with the Union

Status: 11.06.2021 10:40 a.m.

When it comes to the issue of gasoline prices, the focus is on the Greens. The grand coalition decided to increase the price of CO2 a long time ago. Union faction leader Brinkhaus made this clear again, but demanded an appropriate transition period. In the dispute over rising gasoline prices, Union parliamentary group leader Ralph Brinkhaus has made it clear that gasoline would also become more expensive with the Union at the head of the future federal government. “Petrol is getting more expensive, now a little bit, in the second half of this decade it will be really more expensive,” said the CDU politician in Im ARD morning magazine . This was already decided in autumn 2019. “The fight against climate change will not be for free.”

Not the “if”, but the “when” is up for debate

It is important to create realistic and fair transition periods. Germans do not have to sell their cars immediately, but they do have to be prepared to switch to electric cars or low-consumption cars in the future. The social question is not that gasoline will become more expensive. “But the social question is: Do people have a transition period that is long enough to adapt,” said Brinkhaus. This applies not only to gasoline, but also to heating. The plan is to absorb the rising prices through subsidy programs.

Gasoline price hike long been a done deal

In the debate about higher fuel prices, government spokesman Steffen Seibert had recently made it clear that the prices for fuels such as gasoline and diesel would rise in the coming years anyway. The federal government has decided to scale the CO2 price up to 2025, which already has “effects on all fuel prices”, said Seibert last Friday. This applies equally to gasoline, diesel and heating oil. The background to the statements: The coalition of the Union and the SPD had introduced CO2 pricing in traffic and buildings as a central measure in the fight against climate change. Since the beginning of the year, the CO2 price has been 25 euros per ton. According to previous plans, it should rise to 55 euros by 2025. According to calculations, this would mean a surcharge of at least 15.5 cents for a liter of petrol and at least 17.4 cents for a liter of diesel.

Baerbock’s advance fueled debate

In line with the new climate goals of the federal government, the Greens are calling for the increase to be brought forward and for the CO2 price to be raised to 60 euros per ton as early as 2023. At the same time, they propose to give back 75 euros each from the state revenue from the CO2 price to the citizens in order to avoid social upheaval. Most recently, the Green Chancellor candidate Annalena Baerbock fueled the debate. According to her party’s draft program, she advocated a gasoline price increase of 16 cents and, after her announcement, received a lot of criticism, especially from the ranks of the SPD. CSU General Secretary Markus Blume also accused the Greens of proceeding ideologically in the climate debate. “For Annalena Baerbock, climate protection is above all a fight against drivers,” Blume told the media. Mobility shouldn’t be a luxury. Rural areas and commuters will not be allowed to bear the burden unilaterally.

A clear majority rejects gasoline price increases

Environmental groups have long accused the parties of “dishonest election campaigns at the expense of the climate and biodiversity” and argued that the German government itself initiated the price of CO2, which is already making fuel more expensive and will continue to make it more expensive. The opinion of the Germans is pretty clear: According to the latest GermanyTrend three quarters (75 percent) of Germans reject a gasoline price increase. 22 percent think such a measure is a step in the right direction. A switch from internal combustion engines to electric drives in cars is also rejected by 57 percent. 37 percent would support such a measure.