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Greens make nuclear shutdown a coalition condition

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Greens make nuclear shutdown a coalition condition
Photo: DPA

Green party top candidate Jürgen Trittin told Sunday newspaper Bild am Sonntag that shutting down old nuclear power stations would be a condition of entering a government coalition following September’s election.

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“The Green party will not sign any coalition contract that softens the withdrawal from nuclear power. On the contrary, we will insist that older nuclear power stations are shut down ahead of schedule,” he said.

In an interview spelling out the Green party’s position ahead of the election campaign, Trittin also effectively ruled out any cooperation with the hard-line socialist Left party on a national level.

“A party that wants to lead Germany out of the EU and won’t take part in UN operations cannot be in the federal government, and doesn’t really want to be,” he said, accusing the Left party of secretly hoping for a continuation of the grand coalition.

Trittin also rounded on the Christian Social Union (CSU), the right-wing Bavarian sister-party of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU), for its tax policy. “Tax reductions at a time of growing state debts cannot be take seriously. They won’t help either the people who need them or stimulate our domestic economy,” he said.

Trittin said that the Green party wants to relieve low earners from national insurance payments. “People earning €800 a month before tax should have their payments halved,” he said.

To make up for the estimated €10 billion deficit, the Green party is proposing an income tax rate of 45 percent for top earners. “Still 8 percent less than under Helmut Kohl,” he pointed out.

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