“Reform the debt brake”
Wegner positions himself against CDU leader Merz
November 23, 2023, 3:34 p.m
After the ruling from Karlsruhe, the traffic light is in a financial quandary. CDU leader Merz is demanding cuts and new priorities. Berlin’s governing mayor is the first state leader to stab his party friend in the back and demand a reform of the debt brake – immediately.
After the recent Karlsruhe ruling, Berlin’s governing mayor Kai Wegner is the first CDU head of government to call for an immediate reform of the debt brake in order to save important future spending. “Anyone who currently has government responsibility and therefore responsibility for drawing up budgets knows that the necessary investments simply cannot be financed from normal budgets. We therefore need new thinking and new courage,” Wegner told “Stern”. “The debt brake is a good idea in terms of sound finances. However, I think its current design is dangerous.”
Wegner, who also goes against the course of party leader Friedrich Merz, warned urgently against believing that he can simply carry on after the Karlsruhe verdict. The debt brake is becoming “more and more a brake on the future,” criticized the CDU politician. “The Federal Constitutional Court’s ruling makes it clear how investment-inhibiting the current debt brake is – in view of the mega-needs for climate protection, the crumbling transport routes, the huge investment backlog in our schools, the neglected social infrastructure, the necessary restructuring of our energy supply. Without investment, it’s not just ours that will crumble Roads, rails and schools, without investment the future of our country will crumble.”
Wegner had also made critical comments about the debt brake in the past. He emphasized that he did not want to abolish the instrument entirely. “I understand the concern that some politicians would incur debt after debt,” he continued to tell the magazine. That’s why I don’t want to delete the debt brake from the constitution, I want to make it future-proof in the constitution. Loans are only allowed for investments – loans for consumptive spending are taboo.”
Merz for savings instead of debt brake reform
Last week, the Federal Constitutional Court declared the reallocation of 60 billion euros in the 2021 budget to be null and void. The money was approved as a Corona loan, but was subsequently intended to be used for climate protection and the modernization of the economy. At the same time, the judges decided that the state was not allowed to reserve emergency loans for later years. As a result, billions more are at risk for future projects. Since the exact impact on the regular budget is still unclear, the Ministry of Finance decided to block certain commitments from all ministries in the budget for coming years as a precautionary measure.
CDU leader Merz had previously said that at the moment he did not see “that we have to approach the debt brake”. He also rejected tax increases. Instead, he asked the traffic light to set priorities and save elsewhere in the budget. As examples, he cited a waiver of basic child welfare, the heating law and an increase in citizens’ allowance.