The discussion about new debts is causing anger in the traffic lights. The SPD wants to take some in – FDP parliamentary group vice-president Meyer gives a tough rejection.
Recently it seemed as if there was some calm in the traffic light coalition. With agreements on controversial laws such as those on payment cards for refugees or on climate protection, the SPD, Greens and FDP showed: It can also be done quietly, we can also work with each other and not just against each other. Now, however, new trouble threatens.
The trigger, once again: the discussion about the debt brake and the taking out of new government loans. In a paper, several prominent SPD MPs have called for a new special fund to strengthen internal and external security. It is an initiative that more than a third of the SPD parliamentary group is behind – and which provokes sharp criticism from the FDP.
FDP parliamentary group vice-president Christoph Meyer, who is responsible for budget policy, is particularly angry. “Constant repetition does not make the SPD’s contributions to the debate any more meaningful and does not change the coalition’s government policy,” he told t-online on Thursday. There is neither a majority in the Bundesrat nor in the Bundestag in favor of changing the debt brake. “The SPD and more and more CDU opinion leaders are conducting a sham debate that is only intended to distract from the lack of willingness to save money.”
“We expect the ministers to stick to their decision”
Meyer is alluding to the fact that leading CDU politicians from the federal states have recently increasingly distanced themselves from their party leader Friedrich Merz when it comes to the debt brake. He says: With the Union there will be no change to the debt brake. Berlin’s governing mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) recently announced that he would initiate a relaxation of the debt rules through the Federal Council. FDP parliamentary group leader Christian Dürr was also upset about this. (Here you can read more about it.)
The SPD, on the other hand, has always been open to more national debt. Your party leader Saskia Esken has regularly described the debt brake as a “brake on the future” because it prevents investments.
The liberal Meyer accuses the SPD and CDU of wasting time and money during the grand coalition. “The two parties that did not use the upswing and the associated good revenue situation over the last decade to make Germany future-proof seem to have learned nothing,” he said. “In July 2023, all federal government ministers jointly decided to comply with the debt brake for 2025. We expect the ministers to adhere to their own decision and to prepare their budgets in accordance with the valid financial planning.”
SPD MPs want new special funds
The SPD paper in question envisages, among other things, anchoring a new special fund – similar to the one that already exists – for the Bundeswehr in the Basic Law. The new debt raised in this way was intended to finance investments in external and internal security. In addition, the debt brake as a whole should be reformed so that investments in infrastructure and the education system, for example, become easier.
The authors of the paper are the heads of the two largest SPD state groups in Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia, Johann Saathoff as well as Dirk Wiese and Wiebke Esdar. In addition to the German Press Agency, “Spiegel” also reported on the proposal.
77 of the 207 SPD members in the Bundestag belong to the two state groups, i.e. more than a third of the parliamentary group. They will meet together on the North Sea island of Norderney until Friday. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) are also expected at the meeting as guests.
Start of budget discussions
On the one hand, the renewed discussion about the debt brake can be viewed as a prelude to the upcoming election campaigns for the European elections and the state elections in the East. On the other hand, the SPD is likely to use the paper to try to determine the imminent negotiations on the 2025 federal budget.
These will begin from May 2nd at the latest. The ministries must submit savings proposals to Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) by this day. There is a sum of up to 25 billion euros that the federal government will probably have to save. While the SPD and the Greens keep looking at new debts, the Liberals categorically rule this out and are pushing for savings potential in the federal government’s largest single budget, that for social affairs.
FDP politician Meyer therefore also has a corresponding counter-proposal for the Social Democrats: “Instead of dealing with the illusion of changing the debt brake, the SPD in particular would perhaps be better placed to focus on increasing efficiency in the welfare state.”
