Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party wants to blow up the country’s financial system as we know it with elections set for February 23. On Feb 6, they shared their wild plan to simply get Germany out of the Eurozone, deregulate Bitcoin trading and crypto wallets, and bring back the Deutsche Mark currency with gold reserves backing it.
Their ideas go head-to-head with mainstream parties, who think they’ve lost their minds—but AfD doesn’t care. They want Germany out of the currency bloc and believe the Deutsche Mark can make a comeback if it’s tied to something solid like gold. “The Deutsche Mark is Germany’s true monetary identity,” AfD leaders claim, vowing to repatriate Germany’s gold reserves held abroad.
Bitcoin deregulation, cash protection, and rejection of a digital euro
Wallets, exchanges, and trading platforms should be free from what the AfD calls “unnecessary government interference.” Regulators have historically always kept a close eye on Bitcoin in Germany, but AfD leaders say it’s time for a reset.
They’re also waging a war against the European Central Bank’s digital euro plan. They see it as a threat to financial freedom/privacy and a way to snoop on Germans’ finances.
The party also opposes any EU-wide deposit guarantee scheme, which would pool risk across European banks to protect depositors. AfD said it doesn’t want German taxpayers footing the bill for bank failures in other countries. Their tax proposals follow the same logic—they want to eliminate the wealth tax and inheritance tax while increasing tax-free allowances on capital gains, dividends, and interest income.
While AfD is lighting financial fires, Germany’s other major parties are more measured. Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD) are laser-focused on taxing the wealthy. They want a financial transaction tax on stock trades and plan to reintroduce the wealth tax, targeting millionaires and billionaires.
Scholz’s party is promising that “the super-rich will do their part” in funding public services. They also want to tighten inheritance tax exemptions to force large estates to pay more.
Meanwhile, the conservative CDU/CSU bloc, led by Friedrich Merz, is promising to turn Germany into Europe’s financial capital by making the country more attractive for startups and venture capital through tax incentives.
They’re also committed to strengthening the European capital market union, which would make it easier for investments to flow across EU borders. Merz’s bloc is pushing for a digital euro but only if it benefits consumers.
The CDU/CSU is also pushing for stronger customs enforcement to crack down on money laundering, a problem that has plagued Germany’s financial institutions in recent years, though their platform avoids specifics on how exactly they’ll achieve these goals.
The Greens are playing the sustainability card, with a financial agenda centered around environmental and social responsibility. They want BaFin, Germany’s financial regulator, to have more power to fight greenwashing—when companies exaggerate their eco-friendly credentials.
The Greens also want every state investment to meet sustainability standards so that public money isn’t spent on harmful projects, and they also have plans for a nationwide service center to help states combat financial crime tied to crypto.
The Greens also want to work on Germany’s transparency register so they can make it harder for companies to hide funds using corporate structures, and their tax plan includes limiting inheritance tax exemptions and introducing a global billionaire tax.
Finally, the business-friendly Free Democrats (FDP), led by Christian Lindner, are trailing in the polls and may not make it into parliament. But their platform sticks to their core beliefs: lower taxes and fewer regulations.
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