On the second and last day of its closed conference today, the federal government wants to decide on a new strategy to accelerate digitization in Germany. Concrete projects have been agreed that are to be implemented by 2025 and by which the government wants to be measured, said Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP), who is responsible for the project, in the "Tagesspiegel Background Digitization".

Wissing emphasized that it was now necessary "to get out of the discussion of visions for the future and into concrete implementation". "What must not happen is that you dream of air taxis in everyday life, but in the end you overlook how many concrete things you have forgotten to tackle."

Focus on high prices

At the end of the two-day deliberations, the three top people in the traffic light government, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck (Greens) and Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP), give one of their rare joint press conferences. They will not yet answer an important question: What will the third relief package for the drastic price increases look like?

However, Scholz promised that a decision should be made "very quickly" and that the topic would be taken up this week. Lindner expects that there will be clarity about the third relief package during the deliberations on the 2023 budget in the Bundestag, as he said in the ARD "Tagesthemen". The budget law will be tabled in Parliament next Tuesday. Lindner also said: "I have the impression that we can still work out scope in the 2022 budget in order to mobilize effective relief measures this year. Next year they will certainly be available on a considerable scale."

clientelism in relief

In the debate about the relief, all three partners are trying to get something out of it, especially for their clientele. The FDP wants taxes to compensate for inflation, from which those who pay more taxes will benefit more. The SPD parliamentary group wants direct payments for people with low incomes, families, pensioners, students and trainees. The Greens take a similar view and have also proposed a 49-euro train ticket - the SPD jumped on it. The SPD and the Greens would finance it through an excess profit tax or a change in company car taxation - neither of which is an option for the FDP.

Before the exam, the tone in the coalition had sharpened significantly. Above all, the SPD and the Greens made mutual reproaches. Scholz made it clear at the beginning of the exam that he wanted to draw a line under the quarrels. "It will be a closed conference where there is a good mood and the willingness to work closely together in a serious situation for the good of the country."

Habeck said of the discord that there was “a basic tension, a high level of concentration, I assume, among all colleagues. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t talk and act in a collegial and friendly manner.” Lindner said it was "normal" that in such a critical phase there were more intensive discussions between the parties. "I'm concerned with problem solving, times are serious."