Sunday 19th December 2021
“That leverages the debt brake”
Merz: FDP makes the opposite of election promises
The supplementary budget currently being debated contains 60 billion euros, which were actually earmarked for combating the pandemic. What Finance Minister Lindner would like to do with these, sees the designated CDU party chairman Merz as one of the “most daring actions” of the last few decades.
The designated party chairman of the CDU, Friedrich Merz, has accused the FDP of broken election promises. “The FDP says goodbye to many of its election promises,” said Merz of “Bild am Sonntag”. The budget policy is “the complete opposite of what the FDP promised a few weeks ago”. The supplementary budget was “one of the biggest and most daring actions that we have seen in the last few decades”.
Merz reiterated his criticism of the reallocation of unused loans to fight the corona pandemic, which, according to the plans of the new government, should flow into climate protection and digitization. “Moving 60 billion euros in Corona aid to a budget that has nothing to do with Corona will lift the debt brake of the Basic Law and is anything but solid budgetary policy,” said the CDU politician.
“Long before the next federal election,” Merz, who prevailed in a member’s decision on party chairmanship, wants to make the CDU the “strongest political force” in Germany again. “And of course it is my goal for the Union to appoint the Chancellor again from 2025.” To do this, the CDU “must first have a course again,” said Merz. “We want to be able to provide information on the big issues of our time. One of the few advantages of the opposition is that you no longer have to make compromises with a coalition partner.”
After his victory in the first membership decision in the party’s history, Merz is to be officially chosen as Armin Laschet’s successor at a party congress on January 21st and 22nd.
Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner defended the planned supplementary budget on Thursday at the first debate in the Bundestag as necessary support for the economy. Due to the uncertainty in the pandemic, many necessary investments were lost, said the FDP politician.