Status: 10/20/2021 8:32 a.m.
No suspension of the debt brake, no tax increases – so it is in the exploratory paper of the SPD, Greens and FDP. At the same time billions are to be invested. Not an easy starting point for coalition negotiations.
The coalition negotiations begin tomorrow – and the SPD, Greens and FDP are heading for difficult talks. The question of how the projects outlined in the joint exploratory paper can be financed is particularly controversial.
Greens boss Robert Habeck assured on Tuesday evening on ZDF: “It will not fail because of the money to make Germany climate-neutral.” There are a number of proposals in the room so that public and private investments increase significantly. Habeck spoke of around 50 billion euros in necessary investments annually. The co-chairman of the Greens left details open.
The potential coalition partners had ruled out tax increases in their exploratory paper as well as suspending or circumventing the debt brake anchored in the Basic Law, which only allows the state a small amount of new loans. The FDP was able to defend two of its core concerns.
Debt-financed investments by state-owned companies?
The possibility of loosening the debt brake was lost through the outcome of the federal election, said Habeck. He pointed out that a change of course would require a change in the Basic Law, for which the Union would also be needed – which, however, would face a traffic light coalition as the strongest opposition force and, like the FDP, is a staunch advocate of the debt brake.
Green leader Annalena Baerbock regretted this. But the existing debt brake also allows “a limited amount of credit financing,” said Baerbock to the newspapers of the Funke media group. In addition, there are public companies such as Deutsche Bahn AG or the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau, which are already financing part of their investments by taking out loans.
The Green politician Sven Giegold also spoke out in favor of loan financing of state investments by public companies and pointed out that this had long been common practice. In Germany there is “a tendency to consider things new that have long been a reality in European law,” he told the “Rheinische Post”.
FDP vice-president Wolfgang Kubicki nevertheless warned: “There will be no circumvention of the debt brake, in whatever form. This is what is recorded in the exploratory paper,” he told the “Rheinische Post”. He stressed the importance of private investment. “Rest assured that in the end there will be sufficient funding proposals for our projects.”
Eliminate subsidies
Baerbock and Habeck also referred to a passage in the exploratory paper according to which the budget should be “checked for unnecessary, ineffective and environmentally and climate-damaging subsidies and expenditures”. FDP leader Christian Lindner had on Sunday in the ARD stresses that the lower tax rate should remain on diesel. Habeck did not comment specifically on this on ZDF. He and Baerbock and Lindner did not include the commuter allowance among the expenses that are being checked.
Greens do not want to try to raise taxes
Baerbock also made it clear that the Greens do not want to make a new attempt at tax increases in the coalition negotiations. “We have agreed on the cornerstones. This includes that taxes such as the income tax are not increased,” said the Green politician.
Juso boss Jessica Rosenthal hopes that the SPD can get even more out of the coalition negotiations. Rosenthal was dissatisfied with the fact that relief for lower and middle income groups and burdens for “rich upper percentages” with the FDP could not be implemented in the explorations. “That frustrates me,” she told the “Passauer Neue Presse”. At the same time, Rosenthal assured Olaf Scholz of support should he lead the government. “We will make our cross with Olaf Scholz as our chancellor with a lot of joy and enthusiasm,” emphasized the Juso boss.
The SPD, Greens and FDP want to start coalition negotiations on Thursday afternoon to form a joint government. In several working groups, specialist politicians are to negotiate the details of the coalition agreement on various issues and policy areas. The aim is to form a government before Christmas.