Germany frets for economic model after tax scandal
German leaders expressed concern on Saturday that a tax evasion scandal which has put hundreds of prominent Germans in the police spotlight risked discrediting the country’s post-war economic model.
A raid on the home of Deutsche Post (DPWGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) Chief Executive Klaus Zumwinkel in a probe into suspected tax dodging has heightened resentment towards top managers, who many Germans feel have profited from economic growth at workers’ expense.
Thursday’s police swoop on Zumwinkel, who has led Deutsche Post for 18 years, is likely be followed by police visits to hundreds more prominent Germans as part of a probe into offshore accounts, sources close to the investigation have told Reuters.
“Tax cheating: Now the rich are trembling,” ran a front-page headline on Saturday’s edition of mass-selling daily Bild.
Conservative Economy Minister Michael Glos told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper Germany’s top managers should be aware of their example to society free credit report.com. “Otherwise, our social market economy will be implausible,” he said.
“Then our country would be a takeover candidate for the Left,” he added, referring to the Left party, a group of ex-communists and disaffected former Social Democrats whose growing appeal has pulled the main political parties left.
Germans’ faith in executives has been shaken in the last few years by a series of corporate scandals, and by firms putting downward pressure on wages at a time when the economy has seen its strongest burst of activity since reunification in 1990.
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