SPD wants debt brake reform
Klingbeil expects tough budget disputes
March 14, 2024, 5:25 a.m
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The traffic light government’s past disputes over the budget are still well remembered, and the next ones are already looming. SPD politician Lars Klingbeil expects tough disputes over money for the Bundeswehr, pensions, etc. Discussions about the debt brake are also likely to cause controversy again.
SPD parliamentary group leader Lars Klingbeil wants to finance higher defense spending from the regular federal budget. “In principle, I think it makes the most sense to reform the debt rules and have all expenditure in the core budget. A parliament must be able to control expenditure,” Klingbeil told the “Handelsblatt” with a view to calls from his party to increase the Bundeswehr’s special funds .
Klingbeil expects tough arguments in the budget deliberations that are now beginning. “Compared to 2024, the budget deliberations will be much more strenuous – perhaps even the most difficult that I have ever experienced in my time as a parliamentarian,” he said. “One thing is clear: We must not get into a situation in which we play child benefit, pensions, investments and aid to Ukraine against each other.”
In this context, a reform of the debt brake is important. “President (Joe) Biden, as the representative of the country of free capitalism, is spending hundreds of billions to lure industry. And we are putting the debt brake in the window and watching as industrial jobs in this country wobble.”
According to a separate report by Handelsblatt, a study suggests that investors will have further lost confidence in Germany as a business location in 2023. The outflow of direct investments from the Federal Republic continues at a rapid pace, reports the newspaper, citing the latest study by the German Economic Institute (IW).
After record values in 2021 and 2022, the net outflow weakened last year, but at 94 billion euros it still reached the third highest value since the start of the time series in 1971. The net outflow is the balance of German direct investments abroad and foreign investments in Germany.