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Germany: SPD leader S. Eskien challenges compliance with “debt brake” in 2023

SPD leader Saskia Esken has openly questioned Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) ‘s compliance with the “debt brake” from next year. Regarding the financing of possible further relief for the citizens due to the high inflation, he stated in the newspaper “Tagesspiegel” (Sunday) that “the issue of financing is justified and very serious. We should talk about the debt brake or other ways of financing in framework of the coalition.

Lindner, on the other hand, announced that the debt brake enshrined in the Basic Law, which allows only minimal lending, will be observed again from next year. In recent years it has been suspended due to the heavy burdens caused first by the Corona pandemic and then the war in Ukraine. Thus, the federal budget for 2022 provides for a new debt of almost 139 billion euros.

Esken stressed that the European Union had also made it clear that it would be fundamentally wrong for public budgets to give up investing now in favor of debt rules. “I share that view.”

Tasks such as climate change, demographics or social cohesion do not take a break. “That’s why we need to look for ways to continue to invest in and fund our social policy projects.”

Source: Capital

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