The parties in Germany cannot be accused of not offering the voters any clear alternatives.
On Monday, the CDU and CSU presented an election program that kept a clear distance from the Greens and the SPD, not to mention the Left Party.
Only the FDP will have difficulty setting its own accents.
No tax increases, no wealth tax, corporate tax reform, complete abolition of the solidarity surcharge, relief for middle and lower incomes, inviolability of the debt brake - that is a clear edge against the SPD and the Greens. This delimitation loses its sharpness only because doubts can be nurtured as to how the consequences of the pandemic for state finances, such as the “decade of modernization” and the social projects that the Union is also offering, can be tackled without additional income.
The Union relies entirely on the experience of recent years that tax revenue gushes when the framework conditions are just right. In addition, she does not look for well-being in spending money, but in organization and administration. It is noticeable that Armin Laschet and Markus Söder did not mention the gigantic Germany plan, which weeks ago was the focus of Laschet's modernization project, when the program was presented. He does not appear in the program either.
With this, too, the CDU and CSU now stand out from their competitors.
The SPD and the Greens are offering billions in fireworks to counter Germany's lag in digitization and investments, which embarrassed them to have to explain how they want to raise so much money.
Perhaps Laschet's original plan will reappear as a candy in the election campaign.
For the time being, however, the undertone in the program is that Germany is not suffering from a lack of money, but from a bureaucracy that stands in its own way.
The CDU and CSU are brave towards the Greens not to mention a CO2 price.
When referring to emissions trading, the two parties do not even get involved in the game of “What has to get more expensive?”.
They do not boast about goals, but rather about methods, even if one would have wished for more or more details from time to time.
German island versus bridge to the world
Emissions trading is also the bridge to another focus of the election program, with which the Union is celebrating its distance from the Greens.
At the very end of their program, the Greens look out into the world, as if everything that has gone before can be resolved on the German island and then carried out into the world that is just waiting for it.
Conversely, the Union: First, the CDU and CSU point out the international conditions and possibilities, in order to then expand the national path.
In dealing with this program, the FDP will have to do the same thing as the SPD and the Greens on one point.
You will all ask the question: what should be different now than in the past sixteen years?
Where is the difference to the Merkel era, where is the demarcation, where is the new start, where is the departure?
There are many little things in the program with which lessons can be learned from the past (for example in the chapter “Our Europe of order and security”, which conceals a rather tough discussion of the asylum practice). The program does not seek a break in any chapter. It is not necessary at all. The Union's electoral manifesto is anyway the fixed star around which the future debates will revolve.