The circle of five economists, which advises the government of Olaf Scholz, defends a “non -ideological” response to the energy crisis.
by Cécile Boutelet (Berlin, Correspondence)
The annual report of the German economic economic situation analysis is rarely likely to cause political controversies. The document, written for six weeks by five experienced experts (nicknamed the “wise”), advises the government on major economic questions of the moment, and includes several hundred pages. The comments he arouses rarely exceed the informed circles. But the 2022 vintage is exceptional: it created a lively controversy even before its official presentation, Wednesday November 9.
And for good reason: the “wise men” recommend this year to the executive to increase “temporarily” taxes for the richest. Unheard of in a council traditionally considered as a bastion of German ordoliberalism, favorable to tax cuts and a strict budgetary discipline.
The subject is extremely delicate on the political level, because the Minister of Finance, Christian Lindner, is the leader of the FDP, the Liberal Party, who has only joined the coalition once the promise obtained with the other two left (the social democratic party and the Greens) that no new tax would be lifted. “Change of tone to the Council of Sages,” titled the economic daily Handelsblatt, visibly worried about this apparent redistributive push within the prestigious cenacle.
However, the experts, questioned about the issue, replied that their recommendations had been issued according to a pure economic logic. The government has in all hasty, in recent months, very generous tax allege packs to cope with the explosion of the price of gas, oil and electricity.
stretched budgetary situation
Since billions of euros in help also benefited the richest, which did not need it, is it not logical to rectify the shot? And to temporarily introduce a tax or an additional tax for the wealthiest categories, in order to limit the inflationary effect of additional public spending, while instilling more solidarity in a tense budgetary situation?
These arguments did not convince the liberals. Christian Lindner laconically said that “the government did not provide for tax increases”. The Social Democrats and the Greens, who have long been demanding to tax the wealthiest, could have been playing … if the council had not, too, jostled. The report indeed recommends the extension of nuclear power plants “at least until 2024”, a red line for environmentalists and certain members of the SPD, who acted the end of nuclear for the spring of 2023. What feed the debates, already very stormy, within the government.
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