All ministry spending in Germany was suddenly frozen

The Ministry of Finance in Germany suddenly announced that all the expenses of ministrieswhich upsets the co-government of Social Democrats, Greens and Liberals

According to dw.comthe decision was taken after the freezing of 60 billion euroswhich were intended to deal with the pandemic and they can no longer be transferred to the under-formation Climate Protection Fund, one of the declared goals of the co-government, from which major public projects and investments would be financed.

According to the recent landmark decision of the Federal Constitutional Court of Karlsruhe, the absorption by the Climate Fund of the 60 billion intended for the pandemic is unconstitutional.

“End” to the expenses of the ministries

According to German media, citing Finance Ministry circles, all spending approvals for all individual federal ministries are immediately suspended in order to avoid new burdens in the coming years, with only a few and strictly defined exceptions.

The government representative had recently suggested this move Stephen Hembestright, noting that “after the decision of the Constitutional Court “the conditions are different”. According to circles of the German Ministry of Finance, it is not a decision taken by Liberal Minister Christian Lindner alone, but “following an agreement”, which seems “logical”.

At the same time, however, the three-party coalition government, no matter how much it tries to appear united, has suffered another strong blow from the Karlsruhe decision, with the Social Democrats calling for the suspension of the constitutional rule of the “debt brake”, which prevents the assumption of new debts and is a primary objective of Cr. Lindner.

For his part, the Green Ministry of Economy and Energy Robert Hambeckhead and advocate of the Climate Fund, although on principle he is against the reintroduction of the debt brake rule, he does not seem to realistically see any other option.

What is certain is that both the Karlsruhe court decision and the political decision to freeze spending deal another hard blow to the balance within the governing coalition which now has many ways to complete the goal of a climate-neutral transformation of the economy within its term. .