'Not Woke': Scholz's Poll Rivals Outline Right-wing Vision For Germany
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Germany's conservative opposition, leading in the polls ahead of February 23 elections, on Tuesday outlined plans to shift the EU powerhouse firmly to the right on immigration, social and economic policy.
Friedrich Merz, head of the Christian Democrats (CDU), is tipped to replace Social Democrat Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whose term the conservatives have slammed as "three lost years" for the stuttering economy.
A day after Scholz lost a confidence vote he had called to pave the way for the early elections, Merz charged that the chancellor had "lost the confidence of a majority of the population a long time ago".
Merz -- long a party rival of the CDU's more moderate ex-chancellor Angela Merkel -- has steered a return to the party's right-wing roots to try to win support of voters tempted by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
In their campaign programme published Tuesday, the CDU and its Bavarian allies the CSU vowed to "stop illegal migration" and scale down benefits for rejected asylum seekers to a "bed, bread and soap" minimum.
They also pledged "zero tolerance" on crime, more video surveillance in public spaces and to "shut down mosques where hate and anti-Semitism is being preached".
Much of the platform may be softened in the coalition talks that typically follow German elections, but for now the alliance vowed to reverse two decades of more centrist rule dating back to the Merkel years.
They promised a "fundamental shift in migration policy" and criticised Merkel's welcome to refugees, without naming her, by declaring that "we also made mistakes in government -- and learnt from them".
The alliance also said it would reverse the legalisation of marijuana enacted by Scholz's three-party alliance with the Greens and the liberal FDP, which collapsed in early November.
The CDU also said it opposed efforts to liberalise abortion rules, a new gender self-determination law, and a modern linguistic convention often dubbed "gendering" designed to make the German language more inclusive.
Speaking at a joint press conference with Merz, CSU leader Markus Soeder summed up their position as firmly middle-class and conservative and "definitely not left-wing and not woke and not gendered".
In contrast, the campaign of the Social Democrats (SPD), the traditional defenders of the working class, emphasises better wages, stable pensions and benefits such as free school lunches.
Also presenting its manifesto on Tuesday, the SPD vowed "respect" for workers and to "fight for every job".
It wants to lower taxes for 95 percent of earners and raise them for the super-rich, while also increasing the minimum wage from 12 to 15 euros per hour.
The party promised to bring down soaring food prices by cutting value-added tax and making sure families "have more money in their pocket at the end of the month".
The SPD stressed that, while it wants to control illegal immigration, ageing Germany is "a country of immigration" that needs foreign labour and values "diversity and tolerance".
On security, both major parties vow to keep helping Ukraine in its war with Russia, and spending two percent of GDP or more on Germany's defence.
While the CDU programme remains vague on what weapons to ship to Kyiv, the SPD insisted it opposes sending long-range missiles because "Germany and NATO must not themselves become parties to the war".
On the tricky issue of how to pay for their campaign promises, the two parties both want to reinvigorate the "Made in Germany" brand, boost investment and upgrade crumbling infrastructure.
The SPD proposed mobilising an initial 100 billion euros through a new public-private "Germany Fund".
It also plans to loosen Germany's tough limit on new state borrowing, while the CDU insists the so-called debt brake must stay because "today's debt is tomorrow's taxes".
The CDU blamed the Scholz government's "ideological and planned-economy approach" for Germany's "profound deindustrialisation".
It also said it would cap corporate tax at 25 percent and fight "bureaucratic madness".
On climate and energy, the SPD vowed to promote renewables, e-mobility and an ambitious green hydrogen initiative, while the CDU said it would reverse the planned phase-out of combustion engine vehicles.
The conservatives also pledged to study whether some of Germany's shuttered atomic power plants can be brought back on-line, reversing another Merkel-era policy.
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Germany's conservative opposition, leading in the polls ahead of February 23 elections, on Tuesday outlined plans to shift the EU powerhouse firmly to the right on immigration, social and economic policy.
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