Household
Kühnert sees Merz increasingly isolated when it comes to the debt brake
Kevin Kühnert assumes that there will ultimately be a reformed debt rule. photo
© Carsten Koall/dpa
Voices in the CDU that are open to reforming the debt brake are becoming louder. Friedrich Merz is becoming increasingly lonely in terms of budget policy, says SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert.
Hesse’s Prime Minister Boris Rhein (CDU) had previously shown himself open to reforming the rigid requirements for the debt brake. Other country leaders with a CDU party membership had made similar statements, most clearly Berlin’s governing mayor Kai Wegner.
Kühnert believes their point of view is understandable. They are more concerned about dilapidated bridges and schools than “about credit-financed investments in the future.” The SPD general secretary assumes that there will ultimately be a reformed debt rule. “I will continue to make every bet: after the coming federal election there will be a reform of the debt rule – regardless of who has a majority,” said Kühnert. A two-thirds majority in the Bundestag is necessary for such a reform because the debt brake is enshrined in the Basic Law.