Germany’s newly elected government unveiled its plans for the next four years on Saturday, spearheaded by 24 billion euros (US$36 billion) in tax cuts in spite of the country’s mammoth debt mountain.
“It is all geared to creating jobs,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said, calling the coalition pact, finalized after three weeks of tough negotiations in the early hours of Saturday, Germany’s “answer to the crisis.”
“We have agreed a coalition program showing that we want to advance courageously into the future,” she said.
“We are aiming for growth, for the creation of an education republic and social cohesion,” Merkel said.
“The burden on families has to be lessened, the burden on companies and inheritance tax has to be reformed,” Merkel told reporters.
Merkel, 55, won a second term in elections on Sept. 27, ditching her previous coalition partners, the center-left Social Democrats, in favor of the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP).
The cuts, some of which will take effect from Jan. 1, come despite the parlous state of Germany’s public finances, with the national debt currently standing at around 1.5 trillion euros — and growing fast.
Germany already spends tens of billions in interest payments on its debts each year, and it will borrow hundreds of billions of euros more over the next few years as the country reels from its worst recession since World War II.
The new government argues that the economic growth that the cuts will trigger will help cover the cost, together with as yet unspecified reductions in public spending.
The FDP, led by Guido Westerwelle, 47, who will serve as the vice chancellor and foreign minister, had promised voters 35 billion euros in tax cuts, but Merkel wanted 15 billion euros, making this the thorniest issue in the coalition talks.
Westerwelle said that Germany’s taxation system would be simplified, and that the new government wanted the country to become “the best in the world” in education and research in order to ensure long-term prosperity.
“Courage for the future — that is the central theme,” he said.
Following announcement of the tax cuts, Merkel’s SPD predecessor Gerhard Schroeder, chancellor from 1998 to 2005, told ARD public television that “we will have to accept another exceptionally high debt.”
“But at the same time we have to remember that as soon as the crisis is overcome we must reduce this excessively high debt,” he said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique