The president of the Christian Social People's Party (CSV), Frank Engel, went against his own party's position and proposed higher taxation of large fortunes to deal with the coronavirus crisis.

In this context, Engel also proposed to adapt the inheritance tax, albeit with the introduction of certain exemptions. Engel made these statements in an interview with the news website reporter.lu, which provoked even more disagreement within the country's largest political party.

After the comments were made public, a meeting was arranged between Engel and the leader of the CSV parliamentary group, Martine Hansen. The aim was to discuss not the differences but the "future common ground" of the party, as the president of the opposition party explained in an interview with RTL.

The president of the CSV is convinced that the current recession and the coronavirus crisis cannot be solved with government loans. Instead, Engel argues that more revenue must be generated without further tax increases for workers. The idea would be to specifically target those who generate income without working. Engel is primarily thinking about inheritance tax, but also about taxes on financial transactions. These are taxes which the CSV had never wanted until now, not to mention the reintroduction of the wealth tax for individuals, which was abolished by the Christian Social People's Party in 2006.

However, whether it is a property tax on real estate or inheritance tax in the direct line: the party president specified that under no circumstances should farmers who work their land or parents who wish to transfer a plot of land or a house to their children be impacted by this measure. Exemptions or deductions must therefore be introduced, according to Engel.

CSV distances itself from its own president

The CSV general secretary, Felix Eischen, confirmed that the party's parliamentary group met on Saturday morning via video conference. In a press release published after the meeting, the party distances itself from its own president stating that it would stick to the electoral programme from 2018, which rules out both a wealth tax for private individuals as well as an inheritance tax in the direct line.

Neither Frank Engel, nor Martine Hansen were available for a comment via telephone. According to information obtained by RTL, the press release was written by Engel himself.