Some Agreement on the New Government Expectations

 Some points of the new SPD-Green-FDP government are coming out in point-papers that the three have agreed upon.  Focus discussed this in the afternoon....some positive....some negative:

1.  The three agreed to fund in some way the construction of 400k new apartments of which they (the federal gov't) will pay for a quarter of the cost.  Who gets the money?  Probably city government with some backing of private banks, and a general rent-controlled situation (not openly discussed).  

2.  The end of coal-mining?  To be ended early....maybe by 2030.  I don't expect this to stick because of continual discussions of the grid.

3.  The 6.5 cents per kWh of power....being a renewable energy surcharge?  Going down by almost half.  It's not a big deal, but every cent now counts.

4.  12 Euro is the set minimum wage in 2022.  Don't expect small businesses to be happy over the mandate.

5.  Something called 'citizens money' (burgergeld) will replace the Hartz IV welfare money.  More money for welfare? Well....NO, they didn't really say that.  If you ask me....it's just a name change, and probably a 3-to-4 percent increase on the monthly amount.  No one will be allowed to call it welfare money....to make everyone happy.

6.  Something will be done over 'weakened' pensions (meaning mostly people who make less than 1,000 Euro a month.  They haven't said how this will occur.  I will admit....it's just a large crowd of Germans who worked the last forty years of their life on a meager salary, and their pension deal is crap.  But you'd have to force the younger workers to agree to a larger contribution.....of which they will whine over the impact to their lives.  

7.  Speed limits on autobahns?  No.  

8.  The statutory debt brake is staying.

9.  Tax increases?  NO.  There is some agreement that minor upgrades on investments might occur....beyond that.....no tax increases.  A problem?  They have a ton of money from the flood episode and Covid that took big cash out of the bucket.  So somewhere down the line.....there has to be cuts coming in 2022.

10.  Finally, to the subject of 16-year old kids voting in the Bundestag or EU elections?  Yeah, they agreed to this.  A big deal?  It basically puts the CDU in a harsh position for the 2025 election....where a large segment of the youth vote (16 to 21) will vote Green Party in that election (I'd expect it to be near 90-percent of the group to be Green Party).  A deep agenda on the environment and shutting down various industries?  Yeah, I'd expect the 2025 to 2029 to be a pretty difficult era for working-class Germans.