By Tom Sims
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Germany elects a new parliament on February 23, with potential ramifications for the financial industry of Europe’s largest economy.
Below is an outline of how those parties faring best in the polls are planning to shape finance, based on hundreds of pages of platform documents.
Spoiler alert: The far-right Alternative for Germany wants to exit the euro and deregulate Bitcoin, while Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats want to tax the super rich.
CDU/CSU
Chancellor candidate: Friedrich Merz
The conservative alliance of Merz’s Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) are leading in the polls and, where finance is concerned, lay out only broad-brush ideas with few specifics.
* The conservative bloc aims to make Germany Europe’spowerhouse for finance – a long-standing desire that faces stiffcompetition from London and Paris – while preserving thenation’s so-called three-pillar banking system that analysts saylimits mergers and bank profit. * They aim to further develop European capital market union,a pet topic of banks to which other mainstream parties have alsopaid lip service over the years. * They favour establishing Germany as a venture capital andstart-up leader, achieved in part through tax incentives. * They want to create a customs police with greater powersto target money laundering and financial crime. * They advocate preserving a variety of payment methods,including cash, and want a digital euro – in the works at theEuropean Central Bank – only if there is added value. (Half ofGermans said they would definitely or probably use a digitaleuro, a central bank survey showed.) * They favour increasing tax-free allowances to reduceinheritance tax and taxes on home purchases, and they opposes awealth tax that has already been suspended for decades.
AfD
Chancellor candidate: Alice Weidel
The far-right Alternative for Germany party is running second in the polls, but the nation’s mainstream parties refuse to work with them in any government, meaning the proposals may never see daylight. Their plans for finance are nevertheless the most concrete, and radical.
* The AfD is calling for Germany to leave the euro currencybloc, a long-standing demand for the European Union-scepticparty despite broad acceptance for the currency among thepopulation. * It wants gold to underpin a reinstated Deutsche mark anddemands that the nation’s gold reserves abroad be repatriated. * It favours the “extensive deregulation” of Bitcoin,wallets and trading. (Regulators have been cautious oncryptocurrencies.) * The AfD opposes a digital euro and insists that theconstitution enshrine cash as both legal tender and a basiccivil liberty. * The AfD opposes a European deposit guarantee scheme forbanks. * It wants to abolish an inheritance tax as well as thewealth tax. * It is calling for an increase in tax-free amounts earnedfrom dividends, interest and capital gains.
SPD
Chancellor candidate: Olaf Scholz
The centre-left Social Democrats under Chancellor Scholz is trailing third in the polls but has for decades participated in coalition governments.
* The SPD proposes introducing a tax on financialtransactions, as is the case in some European countries, on thepurchase and sale of stocks. * They are vowing to tax the super rich, in line with acommitment by the world’s 20 biggest economies (G20). * It would like to reintroduce the wealth tax – something ithas favoured for years but hasn’t happened – and tweakinheritance taxes so that more is paid on multi-million andbillion-euro assets. * “The super-rich should be more involved in financing thecommon good,” their platform reads.
GREENS
Chancellor candidate: Robert Habeck
* Like the SPD, the Greens seek to limit inheritance taxexemptions and introduce a global billionaire’s tax. * The party is calling for a nationwide service centre topool expertise on the misuse of cryptocurrencies that states canuse to help fight financial crime. * It pledges to further develop a transparency register forcompanies to make it harder for criminals to hide their moneybehind complicated corporate structures. * Germany should play a leading role in the improvement ofsustainable finance regulation, and all financial investments ofthe state should be invested in accordance with sustainabilitycriteria, they say. * They advocate making the financial regulator BaFinresponsible for protecting against so-called greenwashing andwant easy-to-understand standards for sustainable investments.
The business-friendly Free Democrats (FDP) under party leader Christian Lindner, are trailing so far behind that they may not be represented in the next parliament. They stand for lower taxes and less red tape.
(Reporting by Tom Sims. Editing by Gerry Doyle)
