Following the defeat of the federal government's planned relief bonus in the Bundesrat, Germany's Green Party is pressing for a reduction in the electricity tax as an immediate alternative. "The electricity tax reduction would ease the burden on both private consumers and businesses," said Green Party co-leader Felix Banaszak on Monday in Berlin. He added that there was "no reason why this cannot be implemented now."
Banaszak also put forward additional options to address the strain of high energy prices, including a taxable one-off payment of 100 euros for all citizens and a price reduction for the Deutschlandticket, Germany's nationwide public transport pass.
The Green Party leader advised against any further attempts to push through the government's original plan, a tax-free and levy-free relief bonus of 1,000 euros that employers were expected to pay out to their employees. "The relief bonus has failed," he stated. Banaszak stressed that the relief bonus had never been his party's proposal to begin with.
He attributed its failure partly to what he described as poor coordination by the CDU/CSU and SPD, noting that those responsible had apparently failed to consult in advance with the very parties expected to implement and finance the bonus, namely the federal states and employers.
Turning to the broader energy crisis, Banaszak accused the government of providing "the wrong answers at the wrong time." He argued that rather than following the lead of the European Commission and other European countries in accelerating electrification, Economy Minister Katherina Reiche (CDU) was working "in favour of new gas and oil heating systems as well as combustion engine cars."
Green parliamentary group leader Katharina Dröge echoed the call for lower electricity taxes, telling the Funke Mediengruppe newspapers that the measure "would help families as well as small and medium-sized businesses, and would at the same time be a smart incentive to switch to climate-friendly technologies."
Instead of the failed relief bonus, Dröge called for "sensible crisis policy that provides targeted and fair relief for people and businesses." As part of the upcoming tax reform, she proposed raising the basic tax-free allowance by 500 euros and increasing the employee lump-sum deduction to 1,500 euros. At the same time, she insisted that "very high incomes must contribute more to funding public services."
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