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155 comments on DrumBeat: May 4, 2008

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Carolus Obscurus on May 4, 2008 - 10:21am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Nobody currently running is going to say we need to raise gas prices. Heck, even the Green Party isn't going to tell people they have to drive less...

Ditto in Germany. When the Greens proposed raising the price of petrol to 5DM / liter (approx. €2,50) in their draft programme for the 1998 Federal Elections, the media reaction was so hostile that it soon became clear that they risked wiping themselves out. The realpolitiker in the party were quick to re-write the draft programme and the idea was eventually dropped. I don't think it's been heard of again.

German-speaking TOD readers might like to consult the chronology of this cautionary tale here:

http://www.politik.uni-mainz.de/kai.arzheimer/bamberg/Bamberg.html

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expat on May 4, 2008 - 2:51pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

You have left off the entire framework of various German Ökosteuer (call them environmental taxes in German), including the raising of the gasoline tax in steps over a period of 5 years - 'Die Mineralölsteuer wurde nach ökologischen Kriterien gestaffelt; dabei wurden bestimmte Verwendungszwecke begünstigt. Von 1999 bis 2003 wurde die Steuer mehrmals erhöht.' http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96kosteuer

The Greens are a very interesting case, since it is easy to attack some of their more naive proposals - including, from what I have been told, the idea of only using animals to farms, coming from the very beginning of the Green Party.

Of course, for years the CDU insisted that women's proper role did not involve such jobs as actually being the Chancellor, but oddly, no one makes fun of how the CDU has compromised its principles by having Merkel the head of the party.

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Carolus Obscurus on May 4, 2008 - 3:12pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Expat,

I was writing a comment, not a treatise. My point is that no political party can afford to bite the bullet and call for a radical increase in fuel taxation -- least of all today. But thanks for the information on the 'gradualist' approach.

There's nothing 'naive' as such about proposing a hike in fuel tax. What's naive is expecting that you will be able to convince more than 1% of the electorate that it's not naive.

As to Angela Merkel -- political parties couldn't care less about the sex of their leaders provided they win at election time. Margaret Thatcher (first leading politician to cotton on to climate change, BTW) had no problems with the Tories either. Where did you get the idea that the CDU had any principled opposition to women PMs?

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expat on May 4, 2008 - 3:49pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Mainly because the conservative Catholic part of the CDU was a devoted follower of the 'Kinder, Küche, Kirche' framework - 'a German slogan translated “children, kitchen, church”. In present-day Germany, it has a derogative connotation describing an antiquated female role model. The phrase is vaguely equivalent to the English Barefoot and pregnant.' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinder,_K%C3%BCche,_Kirche (not a very good link)

And it is not exactly a coincidence that Merkel is East German - most West German women found more hospitable political homes in other parties, in part because most West German women who wanted to live in ways not encompassed by traditional role models pretty much realized that the CDU was their opponent, at least in the past.

Things change, of course. Now, the Christian Democratic mayor of Hamburg (who while gay, is not in a civil union like the SPD mayor of Hamburg or the head of the FDP) is allied with the Greens to retain power. A generation ago, the CDU was also the most reliably anti-gay party.

As pointed out by Radlafari, the 5 mark tax died, but increased taxation of energy did not.

The Greens are to a major extent being proved correct in their forecasts - I would not say that raising energy taxes is political suicide in Germany, at least as long as it is coupled with positive benefits - the growing number of PV system installations and home insulation standards being concrete examples.

The original Green tax proposal was clumsy, and then whipped into a firestorm by the Bild. What is forgotten is how Kohl raised the gasoline tax several times, without the same accompanying outrage.

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radlafari on May 5, 2008 - 6:18am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

What is forgotten is how Kohl raised the gasoline tax several times, without the same accompanying outrage.

That is true. And it shows that it isn't so much the message that comes to voters, but even more the person who sends it. Always reminds me of Franz-Josef Degenhardt's lyrics:

".. und wer alt war, galt als weise,
und wer dick war galt als stark.
Und den dicken Alten glaubte man
aufs Wort und ohne Arg .."

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radlafari on May 4, 2008 - 2:59pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Five deutschmarks for a litre of gas (this compares to ~$14 the gallon today) was widely perceived as completely overdrawn in 1998. However, after the green-red coalition took power in late 1998 they soon imposed an additional tax on petrol, the "Oeko-Steuer", which remained untouched when the new coalition government (without the greens) in 2005 took power.

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