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How much middle class can the new government take?

20. July 2022

The new government is in place. Under the leadership of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the traffic lights have now also announced the new ministers. Six ministries are held by the SPD, five by the Greens and four by the FDP.

The SME sector represents around 3.5 million companies in which six out of ten of all socially insured employees work and four out of five trainees are prepared for their working lives. The clear demand of SMEs was the reduction of superfluous administrative duties as well as better networking of the administration to ensure the performance and competitiveness of SMEs. After all, Germany has been losing competitiveness for years – also due to immense bureaucratic hurdles. In addition, there is good news from the new government: for example, the duration of planning and approval procedures is to be cut in half. In addition, there are to be no tax increases for companies and the debt brake remains in place. These results allow us SMEs to look to the future with hope.

Climate policy is at the very top of the coalition agreement. But if you read carefully, you will find a long list of social policy projects with the same priority. The question now arises as to how the additional energy and labor costs are to be met without tax relief. The motto can only be: We have to speed up as fast as it gets more expensive!

Demand Anita Gödiker: A jolt in the topics of education and digitization

Anita Gödiker, CEO of Satellite Office: “I expect from the new government not only moderation in taxation and in the financing of environmental issues. In addition to a significant reduction in bureaucracy, a jolt in education and digitization must go through the country.”

Digitization is a priority in all areas. And we should – also in our own interest – include the planning acceleration in our 2022 business plans! Because without prospering companies, our country’s vision of progress will amount to little. And, to answer the initial question of how much middle class the new government can tolerate, one can only say: nothing works without the middle class!