Month: June 2020
AfD loses in approval, Greens in front of the SPD
The party AfD has fallen further, according to the survey institute Kantar/Emnid. With 8 percent approval of the weekly Sunday trend, the AfD has lost 1 percent for the fourth time in a month. The Greens, on the other hand, rise to 16 percent (plus…
Tens of thousands in protests against racism
Tens of thousands of demonstrators have expressed their opposition against racism in a number of German cities. Around 15,000 people, many dressed in black, came to Berlin-Alexanderplatz to hold a silent demo. Up to 20,000 demonstrated against racism in Munich. The cluster had to be…
Border controls with European neighbors expected to drop soon
Controls at the German borders are likely going to be lifted mid-June. Federal Minister of the Interior Horst Seehofer (CSU) declared this after consultations with other EU interior ministers. He would like to present his proposal to the Federal Cabinet next week. The background is…
FDP expert calls for strengthening “work regardless of location”
FDP labor market expert Johannes Vogel has called for a modern legal framework for remote and mobile work. The freedom of choice between either a job at an office within the company or working from alternative locations should be strengthened, Vogel said. To bring this…
Lindner opts for income tax reform
The chairman of the FDP, Christian Lindner, has criticized the provisional reduction in VAT and called for the income tax to be reformed instead. The solidarity surcharge could be abolished at the same time, he indicated. The reduction in VAT leads to bureaucratic effort, Lindner…
2 million applications for Corona Emergency Aid
2 million self-employed and small businesses have applied to the Federal Government’s Corona emergency aid. According to a document by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of the Economy, the applications amount to a total volume of 13.7 billion Euros. According to the document,…
EU-China Summit postponed
Due to the Corona pandemic, the EU-China Summit, which was set to take place in Leipzig in mid-September, has been postponed. Government spokesman Seibert said that Chancellor Merkel had called Chinese President Xi Jinping and President of the European Council, Michel, to discuss the topic….
More new apartments were completed in 2019
With an increase of 2 percent, more apartments were built in Germany in 2019 than in almost 20 years. 293,000 new units were created in the past year, almost as much as in 2001, when 326,600 apartments were built. The Federal Government’s target, however, was…
Almost 15,000 potentially violent right-wing extremists?
Constitutional protection counts 30,000 people in Germany as belonging to the scene of the extreme right. However, police authorities only classify 65 right-wing extremists as posing a risk of using violence. The number of Islamist potential violent extremists is set ten times as high. The…
Economic expert for limited non-wage labor costs
The chair of the German Council of Economic Experts, Lars Feld, has questioned the planned basic pension. The reason is that the social security contributions, also known as non-wage labor costs, “should not exceed the 40 percent mark.” In the long run, the basic pension…
IAB director against an increase of the minimum wage
The director of the Institute for Labor Market and Vocational Research (IAB), Bernd Fitzenberger, has labeled an increase in the minimum wage during the Corona crisis as a clear “no-go”. However, minimum wages could be based on collective wages. On the other hand, lowering the…
Coalition committee approves 130 billion Euro stimulus package
The federal government’s stimulus package will include a total of 130 billion Euros for 2020 and 2021, it was decided on Monday evening by the leaders of the coalition committee. On July 1 and up until December 31, VAT is expected to drop from 19…
