you are in Switzerland as “Bank shock” because you acquisitions as the Finance Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, control CDs. When did you realize that Germany does not have to raise the other strings to complain to the tax evasion via Switzerland only, but from beginning to end?
About a year after I took office, 2011. My tax man told me that they have from Swiss banks of information on large-scale tax evasion: German, in Switzerland, the German tax authorities hidden. A little later I learned that the then Federal government of CDU/CSU and the FDP planned to introduce a new tax agreement with Switzerland. Wolfgang Schäuble as Minister of Finance in a leading role.
The SPD
as a social
economic caster bracket of the
left-wing camp.Norbert Walter-Borjans,
What did it have to do with the other?
In North Rhine-Westphalia not only live a fifth of all Germans, the country was and is also particularly affected by the structural change in the industry. The costs a lot of money. If you see that as Minister of Finance, your revenue, and find that many of the Rich and financially strong part in it as it is, the tax laws actually, that is not fair. A part of the company beyond his duties.
And the agreement with Switzerland?
It should look like if it came to the automatic exchange of information is the same. In fact, the opposite was the case: The anonymity would have remained preserved, and Germany would have even agreed to buy no more CDs. Since these discs were brought for the first time, a bit of light into the darkness – and the stores should be closed!
Was it for you the same clear that you would buy in Switzerland, the stolen information?
There was a precedent that had shown the potential impact of developing such data: Liechtenstein. At that time, the Federal intelligence service had acquired the data. As we have been offered something Similar from Switzerland, said I: But of course! My goal was to crime to uncover. Without the CDs, this would not have been possible. I stand by it. German courts have reviewed the practice later, and as a legally confirmed.
As they sank schäuble’s agreement?
learned The more the Public about the extent of the tax evasion, the more, the approval grew to be our CD sales to the Public. At the end of the allowed me to, in the Bundesrat, the organize then-red-green-dominated chamber of the Federal States, a majority against the government and the Bundestag, already approved the tax agreement. So it was dead.
thanks to the CDs for Germany took 7 billion euros in additional taxes. That was your biggest victory?
Anyway, I’ll be praised for it until today by many people: “You are not one to talk about tax justice, only are. You fought against massive resistance from lobbies and politics.” This success has given me credibility. In other cases, people trust since then, my strength.
If the infrastructure is falling apart, the schools are dilapidated, the Land of a single radio hole, you need to know: Who paid for it, to change it?Norbert Walter-Borjans,
In Switzerland, however, they were suspected of industrial espionage and receiving stolen goods, against three of its investigators arrest warrants were issued. It has taken the?
dealing with the investigators already, me personally. What can be wrong with that, if an investigator buys information to put a tax theft to an end – and not just as a receiver of stolen goods, with the stolen goods business? Switzerland tried without success to make perpetrators, victims and Victims perpetrators.
Avoid the country since then?
by No means. This year I was invited to the Swiss television. I love driving in Switzerland. Switzerland is not only a beautiful country, the Swiss are also great people. You can’t help it that they are home to an industry that has not benefited the reputation of Switzerland just.
Who has contributed more to the looping of the “banking secrecy”: Germany or the USA?
it was Crucial that the various lever seized into each other. The American threats for the Swiss banks particularly threatening. North Rhine-Westphalia, in turn, influence the Federal policy – and that was for the whole of Europe as a Signal. I have made a contribution.
you are in Switzerland, perhaps better known than in Germany, apart from North Rhine-Westphalia. If you want to be Chairman of the SPD, must change.
My Name is maybe some of the not a term, but most know of my struggle for tax justice. “Ah, you are the one with the control CDs?”, many people have said to me in the last few weeks. Well, for me, is that the majority of Enjoyed connect success with it. The transfers also to other policy fields.
I would have never applied to the presidency, if the impression would have been merely a political want to be a pensioner even.Nobert Walter-Borjans,
tax matters are, of course, a minority issue.
In a broader sense is not intended. The question of how to Finance concerns good and just, is the beginning of all policy. If the infrastructure is falling apart, the schools are dilapidated, the Land of a single radio hole, you need to know: Who paid for it, to change it?
you Are the candidate of the justice?
Yes. At the same time you can’t deny me, as a former Minister of Finance and economic development difficult economic expertise. I know that the state can only redistribute what is business and Private before. My teacher, Johannes Rau, who later became Federal President, said that The SPD, the party must be in need of solidarity. And, the solidarity is ready. Many have lost confidence in my party, because they see this basic idea again. The party has procedures twenty years ago, in the neo-liberal Pampa and suffers until today including.
Urges the SPD to the left, hits the left party, which has been in dispute with the “neoliberal” turn of the SPD split off. What do we need two parties?
If the return to the old social-democratic values should be on the left, pre-I am on the left, not so much. The Green concern for the climate and the environment, connects us, with the Left the to the social situation. In the case of the Green, the thought of missing me, as climate protection is also available for people with a small income is portable. And at the Left the understanding of what the economy needs to flourish. The SPD forms the staple of these concerns, it needs you. And an Alliance of the three parties would be a good way to achieve a progressive majority.
As a candidate for the party presidency, they are especially the favorite of the young socialists, who wanted to prevent two years ago, the renewed government involvement necessarily. Why don’t you tell clearly that you want to leave the Grand coalition?
Because it is neither for nor against a certain coalition as an end in itself, but a good and just future. I would have never applied to the presidency, if the impression would have been merely a political want to be a pensioner even. The deciding factor was that I felt the confidence of young people. You put a hope in me, just because I have experience, and consistently in the Act was.
you touch the?
Quite. I am the father of four adult children, watching now, like other young people, trust in your father. The touched and motivated me.
And the Grand coalition?
Whether it makes sense for the SPD, the government is to continue, depends, for me, less of the balance sheet of the already Done than of what is in the next two years is still possible. And I’m skeptical about that. If the loads continue to be distributed, from top to bottom instead of Vice versa, deepens the social cleavage more. With regard to the social burden of compensation, not covered by the government anyway, our handwriting. And if the Union, in turn, new demands on the coalition, it is difficult for the government to continue.
in your opinion, the SPD should be abandoned in the case of elections, a candidate for Chancellor to set up. That was just a tip against their much better-known competitors, Olaf Scholz, or a contribution to the “self-dwarf”, as some German media criticized?
Many find it liberating that I can look realistically at our current opportunities and problems. The question is not at the Moment. If the members of esque Saskia and me choose their Chairman, then I am sure that the mood for the SPD and brightens quickly. Then the Chance that the SPD leads a progressive coalition government is quite. This requires, of course, a Chancellor candidate, or a candidate for Chancellor.
Created: 12.11.2019, 18:31 PM
