The minister responsible for the reform cannot attend the morning session in person. His return trip from the G20 meeting in the US to Berlin is delayed because the aircraft of the government’s flight readiness unit has a technical problem. Details of the damage were not disclosed, but it appears to be fixable.
The departure is scheduled for noon German time. Klingbeil was originally supposed to fly from Greenville-Spartanburg Airport in South Carolina on Tuesday afternoon local time, landing in Berlin early Wednesday morning – just in time for the cabinet meeting. There, the tax reform he had drafted was to be set in motion, which he then wanted to present to the press. That will not happen now; a state secretary can represent him.
The planned income tax reform had recently sparked debate. The CDU criticized that the relief did not go far enough. Klingbeil rejected this and stressed that the government had agreed on the reform. Relief was possible but had to be financed. The project is considered one of the major reform initiatives of the coalition, which continues to argue over it.
Source: Tagesschau
