With further demands towards Berlin, the CSU tries to drive the traffic light government along.

In a paper on economic policy available to the FAZ, the CSU state group in the Bundestag calls for a “courageous corporate tax reform” shortly before its closed-door meeting in Kloster Banz.

If the traffic light robs companies of the money they need for innovations and investments, there will be no new impetus for growth.

Timo Frasch

Political correspondent in Munich.

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Germany is a "high-tax country" with a tax burden for companies well above the OECD average.

"If we don't lower this tax burden, Germany is in danger of falling behind in international competition." The fact that there is not one of the 100 most valuable companies in the world from Germany is "more than a warning signal".

"Road infrastructure is the number 1 mode of transport"

The CSU is also demanding more money for road expansion before the conference that begins on Wednesday.

"The road infrastructure is the nervous system of our economy and the number 1 mode of transport." The CSU transport ministers have increased investments in the transport infrastructure (road, rail, waterway) from ten billion to more than 19 billion euros.

"We expect the federal government to continue to increase funds to the same extent."

In order to ensure the country's competitiveness and the prosperity of its citizens, the maintenance and expansion of the road infrastructure must continue to have the highest priority.

It is therefore demanded that the budget for the projects of the Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan 2030 be secured.

In addition, they want to strengthen and expand the rail infrastructure throughout the country.

The CSU in the Bundestag is also clearly in favor of the continuation of the combustion engine.

This is "German cutting-edge technology", which they want to get with synthetic fuels.

Thanks to them, climate-friendly driving is also possible with a combustion engine.

"We are demanding a legally binding set of rules from Brussels as soon as possible so that new vehicles with CO2-neutral fuel can also be registered from 2035."

In view of the energy shortage and the challenges posed by the climate crisis, "the end of biofuels that the federal government is aiming for is also a complete mistake".

You have to "use every existing potential, on the one hand to reduce our independence from authoritarian states like Russia and on the other hand to achieve our climate protection goals".

The regional group chairman Alexander Dobrindt told the FAZ: "After seven months of traffic lights, Germany is well on the way to developing into where it was red-green after seven years: the sick man of Europe.

We now need a clear signal of departure for our economy: Germany must once again become the leader in terms of economic power instead of tax burden.

Our economy is feeling the full force of record inflation, high energy prices and the serious disruptions in global supply chains.” Now it must be about “new sovereignty”, about producing key technologies and products more strongly in Germany and Europe again and one-sided dependencies to be reduced to individual regions of the world.