The government “will present a collective budget” to “secure” the expenditure planned for this year, indicated the Liberal Minister of Finance, Christian Lindner.
The German government is set to break its own restrictive debt rules by passing a supplementary budget in parliament.
The liberal Minister of Finance, Christian Lindner intends to “invoke an emergency situation”, a condition required to once again suspend the constitutional rule known as the “debt brake”, which limits the country’s public deficit to 0.35% of the GDP.
The goal is to resolve a serious national budgetary and political crisis.
Indeed, the Constitutional Court last week canceled the transfer of 60 billion euros of unused credits – notably coming from a fund linked to the Covid-19 pandemic – in a program dedicated to green investments and support for Industry.
Next week’s vote aims to circumvent the Constitutional Court ruling. The finance minister believes it is necessary to avoid a massive spending deficit.
The solution found – a further exceeding of the national deficit ceiling – constitutes a setback in particular for the Minister of Finance, who had promised at the start of the year the return of austerity.
“I consider it my duty to clarify thingssaid Christian Lindner, the German Finance Minister. We cannot talk about 2024 and subsequent years until we have a legally secure and constitutionally guaranteed situation. And for that, next week we will have this draft supplementary budget for 2023.”
The debt limit rule was enshrined in the Constitution in 2009, but it has already been suspended twice since 2020 to deal with national emergencies.
The court’s ruling forced the government to freeze 60 billion euros of investments in green energy, defense spending and other commitments.
On the political level, the budgetary disappointments only amplify the climate of distrust of a growing part of public opinion towards the government bringing together social democrats, ecologists and liberals (right), which has only just passed the mid -mandate.
Voices in the parliamentary opposition, on the far left (Linke) and the far right (AfD) in particular, are calling for new elections to be held. This option is favored by 46% of the population, according to a recent survey by the Forsa institute.
Public support for government parties continues to decline, to the benefit of conservatives and the far right.
According to a recent poll for the RTL-Germany channel, 66% of Germans do not think that Chancellor Olaf Scholz will be able to overcome the crisis the country is going through.
Additional sources • AFP
