German Finance Minister and vice-chancellor Olaf Scholz
Germany's Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said on Saturday a European tax overhaul to increase levies on large digital firms will need time to be agreed, but insisted a solution was needed.
In a joint press statement with Scholz, French finance minister Bruno Le Maire said he will propose adding "a sunset clause" to a European Union plan for a 3 percent tax on the digital turnover of large firms to EU finance ministers meeting in Vienna.
Under his proposal, the new tax, which has not been agreed yet, would end once a deal is reached at global level on the reform of the taxation of digital companies.
Mercedes-Benz is set to unveil its much-anticipated electric SUV on Tuesday, marking the start of a German onslaught against Tesla's dominance of the fast-growing market for premium battery cars.Daimler-owned Mercedes, BMW and Volkswagen's Audi and Porsche divisions are all gunning for the $52 billion Californian upstart, with early publicity efforts emulating its tech-industry halo.The market for upscale electric cars is Tesla's to lose, with sales of its entry-level Model 3 sedan expected to reach about 50,000 cars this year and almost double that in 2019.The Mercedes EQC - whose launch programme in Stockholm features yoga in a direct appeal to the Millennials who have flocked to Tesla - is the first production model under the carmaker's electric EQ sub-brand. It will be closely followed by similarly hyped debuts for BMW and Audi."While Tesla currently has a strong hold on the luxury electric market, I don't think this will be the case after the arrival of the German premium offerings," said Wajih Hossenally, an automotive powertrain analyst with IHS Markit."Tesla has virtually zero competition - but this will change from 2019 onwards."Rival forecaster LMC Automotive agrees, predicting a steady decline in Tesla's share of an exploding electric-car market over the next decade, from today's 12.3 percent to 2.8 percent, even as its absolute sales continue to rise.The Germans' combined market share will surpass Tesla's to reach 11.8 percent in 2020 before increasing further to about 19 percent three years later, according to its projections.The new Mercedes, due to reach its first customers next year, will be priced close to the fuel-burning GLC to compete in the same bracket as Tesla's $49,000 Model 3, helped by its hotter-selling SUV form.An affordable Model Y SUV is slated to join Tesla's high-end Model X crossover and Model S car, but not before 2020-21.Musk's U-turn on Tesla deal could intensify his legal, regulatory woesTech BuzzThe EQC softens its higher-riding proportions with sporty curves and a distinctive full-width rear light, while the interior resembles that of the Mercedes C-Class - a reminder of economies of scale that electric-only Tesla cannot match.Well aware that their earlier battery-car offerings have failed to get anything like Tesla's level of public attention, the German brands are doggedly courting Silicon Valley-style buzz for the coming product blitz.Executives including Mercedes Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche have taken to appearing in jeans and sneakers, responding to a broader tech-industry incursion into areas such as autonomous driving and connected services.When it came to the EQC launch, Mercedes picked the city of Stockholm for its startup scene and green credentials, then began firing off teasers on Instagram as well as Twitter.Like Tesla, Mercedes is announcing EQC orders in Norway even before its price. It has amassed more than 2,000 refundable deposits of 20,000 crowns ($2,400) in Europe's biggest electric-car market, where Tesla sold 8,500 vehicles last year.The launch is the centrepiece of a three-day event that features DJ sets and yoga with a YouTube star - almost literally bending over backwards to telegraph 21st-century kudos.Audi on Monday began production of its e-Tron SUV ahead of a Sept. 17 sales launch jamboree in San Francisco, just 40 miles from Tesla's Fremont assembly plant. It also plans to begin taking reservations backed by refundable $1,000 deposits.The e-Tron is due in showrooms early next year, followed in 2020 by two more electric Audis and the Porsche Taycan sports car from its Volkswagen Group stablemate.Wow FactorNot to be outdone, BMW has hired a Lufthansa cargo jet to fly its electric Vision iNext - still just a concept car - from Munich to Beijing via New York and, of course, San Francisco. Events are planned in all four cities over five days.In another Tesla-inspired move, the three German carmakers are developing their own network of fast-chargers along major highways in a partnership with Ford.While some experts doubt the Germans can ever match the wow factor around Tesla and its founding boss Elon Musk, many also wonder whether they need to."German manufacturers have highly desirable, fun-to-drive premium cars in their DNA," said Nicolai Mueller, a McKinsey partner based in Cologne. "That's a very good starting point."Tesla used its powerful tech aura to persuade early adopters to pay a premium for an all-electric car from a relative unknown, with no quality track-record or physical dealerships for servicing and support.But the German carmakers have a century of manufacturing behind them, with sterling brands, well developed global sales networks and an existing customer base in the millions.BMW's i3 mini and an earlier Audi e-Tron failed to shift large volumes, but the electric-car market has matured since. LMC sees China driving global sales growth above 50 percent annually as the German offensive gets underway in 2019-20.By then the Model S flagship will be eight years old. Musk, by tweeting then withdrawing plans to take Tesla private, has sharpened doubts about the company's ability to keep expanding and updating its lineup."Tesla is potentially facing a product shortfall starting in 2020," Jefferies analyst Philippe Houchois warned investors in a note last week.Tyler Martin, a Tesla owner in Tucson, Arizona, said he had yet to decide whether to buy a Model 3 next - after his current Model S suffered from "build quality" issues requiring several trips to the repair shop each year.One big question is whether competitors can offer a viable alternative to Tesla's proprietary fast-charging network, the 28-year-old software entrepreneur said.If they can, Martin added, "I would definitely consider another brand."
Electric Mercedes opens German assault on Tesla
Leading German Social Democrats and some conservatives called on Monday for surveillance of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) after some of its leaders marched with the anti-Islam PEGIDA group.Some 6,000 supporters of the two groups demonstrated in the eastern city of Chemnitz on Saturday against the fatal stabbing of a man, allegedly by two migrants.The case and subsequent xenophobic attacks have revived a debate over Chancellor Angela Merkel's liberal immigration policy and the need to crack down on far-right groups. SPD leader Andrea Nahles told reporters in Bavaria that she backed observation of the AfD: "After Chemnitz, there are good reasons to do that. The AfD allowed itself to become a front organisation for radical rightists in the streets of Chemnitz, either willingly or unwillingly."Germany suspends two policemen over Nazi saluteBavarian premier Markus Soeder told the broadcaster ntv there might not be enough evidence to warrant observation of the AfD as a whole, but individuals could potentially be monitored.He said he was troubled by the AfD's actions in Chemnitz, and rejected calls by some party members to relax gun control laws in Bavaria. "It's not just about an opposition party; they have a hidden agenda," he said. "We have to send a clear signal in Bavaria that we don't want what happened in Chemnitz."AfD leader Alexander Gauland has said public anger after the stabbing in Chemnitz was justified, but that his party does not support extremism.AFD SUPPORT RISINGThe AfD, which won nearly 13 percent in last year's federal election, rose two percentage points to 16 percent in an RTL opinion poll after the events in Chemnitz.Martin Doering, spokesman for the intelligence service of Saxony, where Chemnitz lies, said a decision on surveillance would be premature, and that it could take weeks to complete investigations into possible right- and left-wing extremism surrounding the Chemnitz case.Interior Minister Horst Seehofer and his Bavarian CSU say the conditions have not been met to monitor the AfD as a whole.Volker Kauder, a top Merkel aide, said on Sunday that comments by some AfD politicians inciting violence against media groups showed the party wanted to "attack our state".But Stefan Mayer, state secretary in the Interior Ministry and a member of the CSU, said a crackdown on the AfD could backfire. "That may well give it a sort of martyr image," he told German radio.Fifty-seven percent of Germans polled by the Civey Institut for Funke Mediengruppe agree that the AfD should be monitored by the government.A court in the town of Landau on Monday sentenced an Afghan youth to 8-1/2 years in jail for the fatal stabbing of his 15-year-old girlfriend in the small western town of Kandel last December. 
Pressure mounts for surveillance of Germany's far-right AfD party
Police in Germany's southern state of Bavaria are investigating two officers suspected of performing the illegal Hitler salute.The German constitution makes it a crime to exhibit Nazi symbols and the incident is likely to feed into a heated debate about racism and the rise of the far right after a record influx of mainly Muslim migrants three years ago.Police said in a statement on Saturday the two policemen had shouted anti-immigrant remarks and made the salute in a pub in the city of Rosenheim on Thursday. It based its information on a witness who was in the vicinity of the two officers.Rival protests held over killing of German citizenA third man, described as a security guard in the police statement, had also taken part and made the salute. The policemen have been suspended.German politicians have been urging action to combat a rise in hostility toward foreigners after skinheads last Sunday clashed with police in an eastern city where a man was fatally stabbed and two migrants were identified as the main suspects.Skinheads raised their arms in Nazi salutes, chased people who appeared to be outsiders and wrestled with police in Chemnitz after police identified the suspects as a Syrian and an Iraqi.Far-right protests continue in eastern GermanyThe leaking of the arrest warrant for one of the two stabbing suspects to the anti-Islam group PEGIDA raised concerns that some justice officials in the state of Saxony, where Chemnitz is located, were sympathetic to the far right."We will not allow the extreme right to infiltrate our society," Justice Minister Katarina Barley told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper on Sunday, urging authorities in Saxony to investigate far-right groups.Chancellor Angela Merkel's liberal immigration policy remains deeply divisive in a country that has taken in more than 1.6 million people over the last four years.The influx contributed to the rise of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which entered parliament for the first time in an election last year with a campaign that proclaimed Islam to be incompatible with the German constitution.Some 8,000 people took part in a demonstration organised by the AfD and the anti-Islam group PEGIDA in Chemnitz on Saturday. About 3,000 people attended a rival protest by leftist groups.Police said on Sunday that the demonstrations were largely peaceful.Leftist groups will hold a concert in the city on Monday to denounce xenophobia and hatred against refugees and foreigners. 
Germany suspends two policemen over Nazi salute
The U.S. military will station about 1,500 additional soldiers in Germany by September 2020, adding to more than 33,000 American troops already in the country in a move that could trigger fresh tensions with Russia.Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested last month that NATO forces in eastern Europe posed a threat to Russia, a charge firmly rejected by NATO officials.The U.S. Army's European headquarters in Wiesbaden, Germany, said the new forces would be permanently stationed in Germany as "a display of our continued commitment to NATO and our collective resolve to support European security."Sharp criticism of the NATO alliance by U.S. President Donald Trump had triggered fears that Washington could reduce defence spending in Europe and reduce its presence."The addition of these forces increases U.S Army readiness in Europe and ensures we are better able to respond to any crisis," it said. The increased troop levels will still be far below those seen during the Cold War.The troop increase was mandated by 2017 U.S. legislation that called for an increase in U.S. Army troop levels, with a significant portion of the increase to come in Europe.The U.S. Army said it would begin activating new units at several bases in Germany this year, including a field artillery brigade headquarters, two multiple launch rocket system battalions, and a short-range air defense battalion.Richard Grenell, the U.S. ambassador in Germany, said the decision underscored Washington's commitment to strengthening he transatlantic alliance, while planned military spending increases had improved security.German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen, a conservative who is battling the Social Democrat coalition partners to back a boost in German military spending, welcomed the decision."The U.S. decision to increase the military presence here in Germany is a welcome sign of the vitality of transatlantic relationship and a commitment to our joint security," she said. 
US military to send 1,500 more soldiers to Germany by late 2020