The German family businesses fear a political shift to the left after the federal election, which could also affect property rights.

Competitive medium-sized companies hold the company together, which would not be possible without securing property and business assets, said the association Die Familienunternehmer on Monday in Berlin.

Any attack on it must be avoided.

Christian Geinitz

Business correspondent in Berlin

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"With regard to the formation of a coalition after the election, we are very concerned that the Greens and the SPD are closer to the Left Party than to the CDU and CSU or even the FDP", criticized association president Reinhold von Eben -Worlée. "The hitherto successful German economic model is threatened with a serious change of direction."

Eben-Worlée made a statement on the presentation of a study on the concept of property in the election programs that his association, together with the Ludwig Erhard Foundation, commissioned the Hamburg World Economic Institute (HWWI).

The researchers found in the study that "the protection of private property is currently not a high priority for the parties examined".

True, the scope and intensity of proposals restricting ownership differed.

Overall, however, the parties lack the awareness that private property leads to more investment and innovation and that interference is risky.

Election campaign "poor in really substantive disputes"

The chairman of the Erhard Foundation, the former CDU Prime Minister of Hesse, Roland Koch, called the election campaign “poor in real content disputes”. The parties apparently wanted to cause as little controversy as possible. The subject of the study can be summarized as follows: "We generally miss the appreciation of property in the election programs, of course especially with some parties."

In the programs of all parties represented in the Bundestag, the HWWI examined five policy areas with a close relationship to property: housing, finance, corporate and climate policy as well as proposals on intellectual property.

"There are particularly sharp contradictions in financial policy, which primarily affects the debate about the reintroduction of a wealth tax," said HWWI project manager and co-author André Wolf.

According to the study, the Union, FDP and AfD fundamentally reject the reintroduction of this tax on substances, among other things on the grounds that it endangers jobs and the competitiveness of companies.

The SPD, the Greens and the Left advocate reintroduction, albeit with different nuances.

Attack on private property

Family businesses see wealth tax plans as a serious attack on private property. This would tax production facilities and investment capital, according to Eben-Worlée: "This deprives companies of the basis for surviving the next crisis." The same applies to considerations about increasing inheritance tax.

With a view to the HWWI analysis, Koch states: "Left, Greens and SPD want to tighten the regulations and further restrict the owners' rights of disposal." Effect: Investors are withdrawing, which increases the scarcity. With a view to the referendum on the expropriation of large housing corporations taking place at the same time as the elections in Berlin, Eben-Worlée said that the governing parties Left and Greens destroyed the foundations of the economic system: "Whoever expropriates real estate landlords today, expropriates other entrepreneurs tomorrow."

When comparing climate policy, the Hamburg institute finds that the Greens rely on a “mix of instruments”.

This includes both property-restricting regulations and state interventions - for example via the speed limit, taxes and subsidies - as well as market mechanisms such as emissions trading.

With the exception of the AfD, which is quite aloof in terms of climate policy, the other parties oscillate around these poles - the FDP, for example, by wanting to rely largely on the certificate trade, and the left, on the other hand, by calling for flight bans and the merger the train and Lufthansa.

The Greens want to only allow emission-free cars from 2030 onwards. Koch said: "Anyone who bans internal combustion engines in order to reduce CO2 emissions devalues ​​both physical capital and intellectual property." According to their own statements, the family businesses provide 60 percent of jobs subject to social security contributions and 80 percent of apprenticeships in Germany.