Scholz Commits To Less Infighting After Rows Between Coalition Partners

At the conclusion of a two-day Cabinet summit German Chancellor Olaf Scholz pledged that his tripartite coalition would limit its public disagreements. This is afterinternal rowseroded the image of gov't stability and raised concerns about the ability of the Scholz administration to agree on new policy.

• Speaking after the summit, Finance Minister Christian Lindner (from the pro-business liberal Free Democrats, FDP) said that “We are a government in which hammers and screws are at work, and that leads to noise, as you have noticed — but things come out of it,”. Scholz (from the centre-left Social Democrats, SPD) added that “We will hammer and tap, but with sound absorbers. It shouldn't be heard any more.”
• The commitment to harmony comes a day after the gov't agreed to EUR32bn in corporate tax cuts in an effort to boost flagging economic activity. Reuters: "[...] in its first year the stimulus package, modest in the context of a $4 trillion economy, will cause a tax revenue shortfall of 2.6 billion euros for the federal government, 2.5 billion euros for the states and 1.9 billion euros for the municipalities."
• On 8 October state elections take place in Bavaria and Hesse. The long-term dominance of the centre-right Christian Social Union (CSU) in Bavaria means that contest will garner little attention. However, the contest in Hesse could be more closely-watched for signs of party strength. The centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) governs in coalition with the environmentalist Greens in Hesse, but the SPD won a plurality of the vote in the state in the 2021 federal election.