Germany: Is compulsory vaccination the only way?
FAZ: Compulsory vaccination releases, does not polarize. Article in TAZ on tax dumping in the EU. "Widespread phenomenon mainly in Greece, Cyprus and Italy".
Dramatic tones yesterday from Angela Merkel about the criticality of the epidemiological situation in Germany , but also from the Minister of Health Jens Span, who even warned that the Germans will either be vaccinated or will recover or die by the end of the winter. Commentators in the German press are wondering why this warning now.
The Hannoverische Allgemeine Zeitung notes that it is "cynicism when the outgoing health minister make such statements. And it is particularly cynical because just 4 weeks ago supported the view that Germany could get out of the situation pandemic nationwide.
December 9 is her or the chancellor's next meeting with the 16 local prime ministers to discuss loose measures against the coronavirus without the possibility of a lockdown . "And they are very likely to reverse it and decide on the general vaccination obligation."
The left-wing newspaper TAZ in Berlin even calls on Jens Spann to resign for this very reason. "By declaring that Germany can get out of the national epidemiological situation, he has proved that he deserves the title of the teacher of erroneous assessments. he should look for another job that has nothing to do with health policy. "
German commentators estimate that the road to mandatory vaccinations is now irreversible. There are many statements for and against the argument that under the German constitution such an obligation violates the guaranteed right to individual liberty.
The prime ministers of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, Zender and Kretzmann, the former from the Christian Social Party and the latter from the Greens, responded to them with an article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
"The obligation to vaccinate does not violate individual freedoms, on the contrary it is a precondition for us to regain our freedoms," the two prime ministers note. "Because our Constitution not only protects against the freedom of arbitrariness, but follows the principle of freedom within the framework of responsibility. It obliges us to weigh the freedoms of all stakeholders and on this basis to make decisions.
The result of this balance (of freedoms) calls for a general obligation to vaccinate, since by the mildest means we could not achieve it. It is a duty that is not an expression of coercion but of a freedom that leads to what everyone should do. Out of respect for rationally based and economically sound principles. "Our democratic processes are the guarantee."
According to the DW report , the two prime ministers, however, also answer the question, whether compulsory vaccination has a polarizing effect on a society. "No" they answer. "The social fabric is not threatened with disruption if the state takes matters into its own hands and imposes compulsory vaccinations. But it is threatened with disruption when "The state should democratically decide the conflict and remove it from society. That is why a possible compulsory vaccination would not burden us, but would relieve us."
Tax dumping for the rich hurts Europe
The newspaper TAZ republishes a report by the EU Taxation Observatory with very important findings. The Observatory is a publicly funded institute that conducts research and comparisons around Member States' tax systems and is headed by economist Gabriel Chukman.
Based on his findings, the German columnist states that the European tax systems suffer from aggressive competition which is a widespread phenomenon mainly in countries such as Greece, Cyprus and Portugal. "Savings models for the rich are becoming more and more aggressive," he writes.
"They offer the most privileged schemes for retirees, high-paid executives, bankers or scientists, spectacle or football stars. Italy, in order to attract wealthy retirees, taxes foreign income with a long-term flat tax. Another special law is that researchers living in Italy can claim a deduction of 90% of their income, which in practice means that only 10% of their income is subject to compulsory taxation. "In favor of high incomes, it went up from 5 to 28. This has led to tax cuts of 4.5 billion euros, more than 200,000 have benefited so far."
The German columnist selects other points of interest from the Observatory's report. "This amount corresponds to the amount of the annual budget of the Erasmus program. disadvantaged those who can not easily move their tax headquarters, ie the poor, they will have to raise a significant part of the tax burden.The tax competition for the rich also means that they pay taxes at lower rates than the rest of the population According to Greens MEP Sven Gigold, tax breaks for the rich are estimated at εκ 450m."European citizens still lack the will to stop this kind of tax damage."
