Tax evader CD is a gift for the elections

In the tax dispute between Germany and Switzerland, the CD containing data about German tax evaders plays an important role because of the upcoming elections in North Rhine-Westphalia, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung concludes: "People are all too eager to forget that this decision [to purchase the data] reflects a clear assessment of public opinion in Germany. Public opinion holds that rejecting the CD deal would be tantamount to giving in to tax oasis Switzerland, and they couldn't afford to do that in the present situation. For Merkel, at any rate, it would have been highly risky, because at the beginning of May elections will be held in Germany's most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia, and a lot is at stake there for the conservative parties. In this context the law is defined differently to how one would expect it to be defined from a purely ethical point of view."

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