Former finance minister Peer Steinbrueck urged German federal states led by his Social Democrats to vote down a tax deal with Switzerland meant to stop Germans stashing their money there, referring to comments that previously enraged the Swiss.
Germany's cabinet last year approved a deal on taxing secret Swiss offshore accounts, but it needs approval from parliament's upper house, or Bundesrat, which represents the states and where the government lacks a majority. "I advise the SPD to object to the agreement in the Bundesrat and advise the government to increase international pressure on Switzerland," Steinbrueck was quoted as saying in a pre-publication excerpt of the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.
Steinbrueck, finance minister in Chancellor Angela Merkel's grand coalition until late 2009, is one of three senior lawmakers vying to lead the opposition centre-left SPD into the 2013 election against Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats. In 2009, he upset Switzerland during a drive to clamp down on tax havens, likening Germany's small southern neighbour to "Indians" running scared from the cavalry. The remarks led a member of the Swiss parliament to compare him to the Nazis.
"I view the agreement with Switzerland as badly negotiated - notably by (Finance Minister Wolfgang) Schaeuble. He wanted to distance himself from the Steinbrueck rambo with the cavalry and in doing so presented an agreement with significant deficits," Steinbrueck told Bild.
Germany, whose citizens hold some 150 billion euros in Swiss accounts, stands to net billions via the accord, and the federal states would cash in on a part of that. States run by the SPD say the Swiss deal does not go far enough. It involves Switzerland taxing accounts held by Germans and levying a punitive charge on undeclared money, with the proceeds passed on to Germany, which would not find out the identities of the account holders.
But it is unclear whether the states, some of which are highly indebted, will vote against the tax pact in the Bundesrat. Authorities in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) last week bought another CD of Swiss banking data from a mystery whistleblower, causing a stir in the Alpine country because the move seemed at odds with the deal. The tax accord has yet to be ratified and is meant to come into effect in 2013.
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