Merkel Against The Car Toll

2023 Author: Eric Donovan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-08-25 09:36

Transport Minister Ramsauer had models for a car vignette calculated. The extreme toll variant when the vehicle tax is abolished: 365 euros per year. But the ministry and the chancellery insure that the car toll will not come. For now, anyway.

The Federal Ministry of Transport caused a stir with calculations for a car toll in Germany shortly before Easter. The simulation games met with almost unanimous rejection on Monday - also from Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU). "There will be no toll," said Vice-Government Spokesman Christoph Steegmans in Berlin. Such a project for passenger cars was not agreed by the black and yellow federal government: "The coalition agreement applies."

Paper at work level

The Federal Ministry of Transport also confirmed this position. «There is the paper. Of course, all possibilities have to be calculated,”the spokeswoman emphasized. However, there are currently no such plans. The template, from which the "Bild" newspaper first reported, was a "paper at work level". It is about "food for thought" that would not be pursued further. Federal states, opposition and associations reacted negatively.

According to the newspaper information, the calculations in the maximum variant assume that the vehicle tax will be completely abolished and that drivers would instead have to pay an annual car toll of 365 euros. Ramsauer told the newspaper: "In my house there are no thinking bans." According to the report, it is assumed in the scenarios that motorcyclists also pay tolls: EUR 30 per year or EUR 10 for two months. This is also not on the agenda, assured the ministry spokeswoman.

Four variants

The paper under the heading “Various scenarios for an e-vignette on federal motorways and federal highways” calculates four conceivable scenarios for cars and trucks with a permissible total weight of up to 12 tons, according to the “Bild” newspaper.

Variant I, the introduction of an electronic vignette for 80 euros, would mean total income of 3.41 billion euros. Variant II, an electronic vignette for 100 euros per year, provides: If you drive little or travel through Germany as a foreigner, you can buy a vignette for two months (30 euros) or ten days (10 euros) in this example. The total income would be estimated at 4.17 billion euros. In variant III, the vignette should cost 155 euros. In this example, 50 euros would be due for two months and 17 euros for ten days. This would bring in 11 billion euros. Variant IV assumes that the vehicle tax will be completely abolished.

Criticism from the opposition

According to its general secretary Andrea Nahles, the SPD rejects a car toll as anti-social. Ramsauer should create clarity as quickly as possible so that motorists would no longer be unsettled. The Greens also argued this way and spoke of a “flat rate for frequent drivers”. Party leader Claudia Roth spoke out in favor of expanding the city toll. For the left, the car toll is not only unjust, but also rejected for data protection reasons.

Lower Saxony's Transport Minister Jörg Bode (FDP) said: "Motorists must not become the nation's milking cow." The Kiel Transport Minister Jost de Jager (CDU) spoke out against further charges. In an area like Schleswig-Holstein, over 150,000 commuters depend on their car every day, said de Jager of the dpa.

VCD: "Funding for fuel guzzlers"

As expected, the ADAC rejected the considerations, as they would make driving a car massively more expensive and lead to more traffic fatalities due to alternative traffic on federal and country roads. The ecologically oriented Verkehrsclub Deutschland (VCD) rejected "funding for fuel guzzlers". The environmental association Nabu called on Ramsauer to “end the debate about driving the wrong way” and to invest less in road construction.

Union parliamentary group Vice Michael Fuchs (CDU) expressed approval. "I am expressly in favor of introducing a car vignette based on the Austrian model if we simultaneously lower the vehicle tax and abolish it in the medium term," said Fuchs of the "Rheinische Post". However, the overall burden on drivers should not increase. (dpa)