Germany's center-right bloc of Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party Christian Social Union (CSU) has unanimously voted in favor of an election program that promises to lower taxes and stop illegal migration.

The CDU/CSU wants to reduce income tax and gradually lower taxes for companies to 25%. It promises not to cut old age pensions and plans to encourage those who want to continue working beyond retirement age of 67, allowing them to earn up to €2,000 ($2,100) per month tax-free on top of their pension.

The problem: The bold ideas of CDU chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz will cost billions of euros, and will be extremely hard to implement if the CDU/CSU refuses to ease the "debt brake." Enshrined in Germany's Basic Law, the brake limits fresh debt to a maximum of 0.35% of economic output (GDP).

Although he himself is not popular with the electorate, Merz's party is currently significantly ahead in opinion polls, and he has a good chance of becoming the next chancellor after the snap election on February 23.

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The Social Democrats (SPD) want to reform the debt brake in order to make billions of euros available for urgently needed investments, for example in the........

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