FDP party meeting
January 6, 2010
Germany's free-market liberal democrats (FDP) met on Wednesday in Stuttgart for their party meeting, held annually on January 6. The self-reflection session comes just a few months after the FDP joined the Christian Democrats (CDU) in a coalition government.
Coalition negotiations between the two parties appeared to go smoothly and many of the FDP's campaign promises made it into the coalition agreement. The centerpiece of the policy blueprint was a plan to cut income taxes by 24 billion euros ($36 billion) and the parties agreed to pursue a simplification of the German tax system.
A difficult economy takes its toll
But the reality of Germany's ongoing economic troubles have put a damper on the early excitement of the election.
Politicians are beginning to voice their doubts, including Bartholomaeus Kalb, member of the CDU's Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU). "We just won't have any money for tax relief or any additional expenditures for the foreseeable future, and by that I mean through the end of the legislative period," Wednesday's edition of the Financial Times Deutschland quoted Kalb as saying.
The CSU also held their annual party meeting on Wednesday.
Germany faces a ballooning budget deficit, with the 2010 budget approved by Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet calling for a record 85.8 billion euros in borrowed cash. The European Union has pressed Germany to get its deficit under control.
As the party meets to discuss plans for 2010, there's been some backpedaling from FDP leaders, including economics minister Rainer Bruederle. "It would be absolutely wrong to start off by cutting the budget," he said on German radio.
FDP deputy party leader Andreas Pinkwart told the Handelsblatt business daily this means that reaching the goals laid out in the coalition agreement might not happen for a few years. "It's enough if the complete 24 billion euros of relief is achieved in 2013," Pinkwart said. Thus far only one tax cut of 8.5 billion euros ($123.1 billion) has been approved.
But he added that the restructuring of the tax system must begin this year. The FDP had hoped to institute a three-tiered system with tax rates of 10 percent, 25 percent and 35 percent.
A new FDP?
With the FDP no longer pushing for immediate tax relief, the meeting in Stuttgart could give the free-market liberals the opportunity to redefine themselves.
The FDP's current party platform dates back to 1997 and on the agenda Wednesday is a discussion of a new platform. When the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung asked FDP Secretary General Christian Lindner whether the FDP image as it now stands didn't fit the current times, Lindner said the party's mission is structurally sound.
"There's no major need for revision of FDP positions," he said. "Instead, it's about evolution. The new party platform is supposed to be worked on until 2012. We should take our time."
But there are elements of the party that are already making changes. The state of Baden Wuerttemberg's FDP has already passed its own platform.
"When the disciplinary force of competition does not take hold…or is impeded by unfair conduct, the state has the mandate to regulate and intervene if necessary in the economy," the new platform reads.
Author: Holly Fox
Editor: Trinity Hartman