Overview
- The CDU‑aligned Wirtschaftsrat’s six‑page Agenda calls for removing dental care from statutory health insurance, capping unemployment benefit I at 12 months for everyone, scrapping the Mütterrente, the pension at 63 and the Grundrente, and excluding commuting accidents from statutory accident insurance.
- The plan links these retrenchments to sizable tax relief, including a higher basic allowance, a later top tax rate, abolition of the solidarity surcharge for high earners, corporate taxation capped at about 25%, lower energy costs and scrapping property transfer tax for first‑time owner‑occupiers.
- SPD, Greens and Die Linke, plus social associations, condemned the proposals as unsozial and warned of a harsher two‑tier health system, with Green health expert Janosch Dahmen calling the dental move medically wrong and economically short‑sighted.
- Intra‑party unease grew as CDU employee‑wing chief Dennis Radtke labeled the package a diktat by the “super‑privileged,” and regional CDU leaders in Baden‑Württemberg, Rheinland‑Pfalz and Mecklenburg‑Vorpommern distanced themselves over fears of voter backlash in 2026 state races.
- The Wirtschaftsrat, a formally independent employer association representing about 13,000 firms, argues more than three million unemployed prove the need to curb contribution burdens and “unleash growth,” though experts note that cutting dental coverage would likely shift rather than reduce costs.