Election campaign: CDU enters the race with Agenda 2030

SZ.de Election campaign: CDU enters the race with Agenda 2030 Robert Roßmann, Berlin • 9 hours • 3 minutes reading time "Growth rates of at least two percent": Friedrich Merz's Christian Democrats promise citizens a lot. How this is to be financed remains vague. Less taxes, more growth: How Friedrich Merz's party wants to help Germany recover in four steps. CDU enters the race with Agenda 2030 The CDU wants to start the hot phase of the federal election campaign with an "Agenda 2030". This Friday, the federal executive board will meet in Hamburg for a closed meeting to discuss and decide on such an agenda. Among other things, the CDU wants to promise numerous tax reliefs for citizens and companies. "Germany at the beginning of 2025 - that is also a country that will have a choice in a few weeks: between continuing as before and heading straight for the longest recession in German history - or a real policy change towards new growth, growth and prosperity," says the draft agenda. Germany has the potential to move forward economically again, especially "with highly motivated and qualified employees who keep our country running." Germany needs "finally a policy that unleashes the potential of this country, of these people." The CDU wants to use this to "achieve growth rates of at least two percent again" in Germany. The top tax rate should only apply at 80,000 euros In concrete terms, the CDU wants to significantly reduce the income tax burden. The increase in the tax rate should therefore be flatter in the future and the top tax rate should only apply at 80,000 euros. The basic tax allowance should be increased annually. In order to make voluntary overtime more attractive, overtime bonuses for full-time employees should be tax-free. And for pensioners who want to continue working voluntarily, a so-called active pension is to be introduced: earnings of up to 2000 euros a month will then remain tax-free. The CDU wants to improve the tax deductibility of childcare costs and household-related services. The solidarity surcharge is to be completely abolished and the corporate tax is to be reduced to ten percent in the end. The CDU does not want to implement the major tax reform in one fell swoop, but in four annual steps. The first step is to begin on January 1, 2026. The proposals for counter-financing the many promises are much less specific in the draft agenda than the relief measures. The CDU is relying, for example, on savings in the citizen's allowance and through a stricter migration policy. Subsidies are also to be reduced. The party wants to hold on to "the constitutional debt brake" because it ensures "that today's debts do not become tomorrow's tax increases and that Germany continues to be an anchor of stability in the eurozone." A digital federal agency should manage skilled immigration The CDU leadership also wants to speak out in favor of introducing a digital federal agency for skilled immigration at its meeting. It should become a single point of contact for foreign skilled workers - from recruitment, recognition of professional and academic qualifications and job placement to checking entry requirements and issuing visas and residence permits. "We also need qualified foreign skilled workers - whether in care or software development," the draft states. They would make "a key contribution to our economic success." One in five new businesses in Germany are already founded by entrepreneurs with foreign roots. The CDU meeting is scheduled to last until Saturday. The party has also invited several guests. On Friday, IG Metall boss Christiane Benner, Merck boss Belén Garijo and the President of the Federation of German Industries, Peter Leibinger, will attend the discussions. The head of the Federal Police, Dieter Romann, and the managing director of the Allensbach Institute for Public Opinion Research, Renate Köcher, are expected to attend on Saturday. The budgets for the federal election campaign and the federal office are also to be decided in Hamburg.