Anticipating the election on September 22nd in the current year, the Christian Social Union, Angela Merkel’s party, in cooperation with the Christian Democratic Union drew up and presented to the public the Government Program for Germany 2013-2017.
The 120-paged treatise promises not to raise taxes and not to impose new ones. Meanwhile, the Social Democratic Party Union-90/Environmentalists, the principal Merkel’s rivals, insist on higher exactions from rich citizens. Moreover, Merkel’s program is expected to increase the welfare benefits, such as pensions and child allowances, as well as to enlarge budgeting for the scientific, educational, and road sectors.
The pledges of Germany’s Chancellor encountered criticism and resentment of the Social democratic parties’ leaders who accuse Merkel of intercepting the proposals put forward by them in their own pre-election programs. It is worth mentioning the idea of putting down the household bills; such statement is against the social democratic plan to lead the economy to a higher level by means of raising house charges in big cities and setting a minimum wage despite the fact that earlier the Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union fervently denied such a measure in fear of unemployment surge.
The opposition tagged the submitted pre-election program as “a book of fairy tales”, while Angela herself refers to it as “the government one”. “We do not promise people more than we are able to fulfill,” she said.
