In the internal Union dispute over the commuter allowance, no rapprochement in sight. Shortly before the start of the CSU party conference in Nuremberg, the sister party CDU reiterated on Friday that there was no financial scope for such tax relief in this legislative period. CSU leader Erwin Huber nevertheless expressed confidence.
Huber stressed that the CSU would "prevail" on the commuter tax allowance. For the demand for return to the old regulation, the Christian Socialists received approval of the left.The head of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Volker Kauder (CDU), opposes the CSU's insistence on the ie. The necessary financial scope for this is not given. The goal remains a balanced budget at the federal level, said Kauder. For the rest, he is more interested in an "effective tax reform after the Bundestag elections than in small individual measures that fizzle out". Parliamentary group vice-chairman Wolfgang Bosbach (CDU) again appealed to the CSU to wait first for the ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court. Meanwhile, the chairman of the CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Peter Ramsauer, defended his party's initiative. The CSU supported the cut in the commuter tax allowance three years ago because it was "part of a very comprehensive savings concept" aimed at reinvesting 25 billion euros in this legislative period in building renovation, road construction and other measures. By the high gasoline prices however the current demand for reintroduction of the lump sum is justified.
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Bavaria's CSU parliamentary party leader Georg Schmid said the CSU would continue to try to convince the Chancellor that the commuter allowance should once again apply from the first kilometer onwards. "Everyone will fall in with this CSU line – including the CDU," he predicted. Politicians must respond to the rise in the cost of living, he said. The population is extremely worried about the development above all with the energy prices. The Christian Socialists received support from the Left Party. "Commuters don't ask about the party book of those who do something to ease their burden," said Left Party Vice President Klaus Ernst. As long as the strong words of the CSU are not followed by a serious initiative, the debate within the coalition once again amounts to a "deliberate deception of the voters. Meanwhile, the chairman of the Bavarian Junge Union (JU), Stefan Muller, expressed confidence that Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) will relent in the dispute over the commuter tax allowance. There is growing support from the CDU for the CSU's call for a return to the old system, she said. The chairman of the CSU Mittelstandsunion, Hans Michelbach, added that "this would be a signal to the people in our country that their problems are understood".