German Chancellor Merz faced the threat of a blockade of tax initiatives from the CDU states

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz faced the threat of a blockade of government tax initiatives in the Bundesrat from the heads of federal states from the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) he heads, the Bild newspaper reports, citing its sources.

“The federal states represented by the CDU are threatening to block decisions (of the German government - ed.). Almost all state prime ministers from the CDU are unanimous: no more new taxes,” the publication says.

According to the publication, the prime ministers of the states of Hesse, Saxony, Thuringia and Rhineland-Palatinate held a closed meeting in Berlin, at which they concluded a so-called tacit anti-tax pact. Its goal is to block changes to tax legislation proposed by German SPD Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil and supported by Merz.

It is noted that representatives of these regions oppose the introduction of any new financial burdens for citizens in Germany, including in the form of a planned tax on sugar, plastic and cryptocurrency, and also demand to stop the income tax reform proposed by the government, calling it “meager.”

The situation for Merz is complicated by the fact that not only the regions, but also his own faction in the Bundestag rebelled against his course. CDU/CSU MPs have already disrupted the vote on the sugar tax and blocked the allocation of one billion euros to protect tropical forests.

Thus, Merz found himself under the threat of a double blockade in parliament. As one of the meeting participants told the publication, the chancellor must decide: to side with the regions with prime ministers from the CDU, which he heads, or continue to play along with his partner in the ruling coalition, the SPD in the person of Klingbeil.

The CDU, led by Merz, was defeated in the September 6 elections to the regional parliament (Landtag) of Saxony-Anhalt, where it received only 17.2% of its support. In Berlin, following the September 20 elections to the Chamber of Deputies, the party lost first place to the Left. On the same day, in the elections to the Landtag of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the CDU was eliminated from parliament for the first time in its history, failing to overcome the five percent threshold.