If a majority is achieved, a repetition of the blue-red-green coalition is an option, but there are also other parties, Baum argued on Monday morning.
The leader of the DP parliamentary group was thereby less explicit than MP Francine Closener, co-president of the Luxembourg Socialist Workers’ Party (LSAP), who said only three weeks ago on Radio 100,7 that she can imagine a new edition of the coalition between DP, LSAP, and the Greens in the next legislative period.
Baum explained that an election campaign is necessary, even after a tripartite agreement was reached. Or, as he prefers to put it: “An exchange of ideas.” According to the DP politician, it is clear that the party has ideas differing from those of the Greens and the LSAP, particularly on tax issues, but also on healthcare and housing.
He meanwhile stressed the importance of debating these different ideas with the other parties to see “what direction we want to take in the years following 2023, if the voters so decide”.
At the tripartite meeting on 3 March, the DP was “not at all” prompted by the LSAP, says Gilles Baum. Ahead of the encounter, DP Minister of Finance Yuriko Backes had still spoken out in favour of targeted measures for lower incomes and excluded the possibility of adjusting the tax scale to inflation.
In the end, however, a partial adjustment of the tax table was still included in the tripartite agreement. Higher incomes now receive higher tax credits than lower incomes, contrary to the policy implemented in the previous tripartite agreement. The DP faction leader thus described the accord as a mix between adjusting the tax scale to inflation and targeted measures for people with lower wages, a hybrid solution in the “signature style of the DP”.
Baum further noted that it is a prudent fiscal policy as the tax scales will be adjusted to only two and a half instead of eight indexations next year, despite unions’ demands. Such an adjustment would have cost the state €1 billion and would not have been possible to finance, argued Baum.
When asked about specific examples of government spending, such as the ArcelorMittal building and the military satellite, the DP politician justified them as “responsibilities” vis-à-vis the steel giant and NATO, respectively.
If the postponed wage indexation falls in April as planed, the energy tax credit will disappear. But, the new ‘conjuncture’ tax credit decided on 3 March will probably arrive with a little delay since the texts are not yet ready, explained the head of the DP faction. Baum also pointed out that the new tax credits will apply retroactively to 1 January 2023. Contrary to the energy credit, the tax credits will not be socially staggered.
