The debt brake in Germany is to be suspended for the fourth year in a row. The traffic light coalition decided this by agreeing on a supplementary budget for 2023. The move is justified by the energy crisis.
The cabinet approved the supplementary budget for 2023 and drew conclusions from the far-reaching ruling of the Constitutional Court in mid-November.
For the fourth year in a row, the federal government will take on more debt than actually permitted and will have to suspend the debt brake to do so. Instead of 45 billion euros as originally planned, there should now be around 70 billion euros in debt. For this to happen, the Bundestag must once again declare an exceptional emergency situation. This is supposed to happen in December.
Lindner justifies the move with the energy crisis
In his submission, Finance Minister Christian Lindner refers to the energy crisis resulting from the Russian attack on Ukraine as justification for the step. However, the higher debt is not associated with higher expenses – rather, the financing of the energy price caps that have already been paid out is being corrected in order to meet the requirements of the Federal Constitutional Court. Two billion euros that were promised to hospitals for next year to deal with the energy crisis will also be secured.
The supplementary budget also contains some updates: it takes into account that the ministries have spent slightly less in the current year than planned. The item for interest has also been revised slightly downwards. Expenses for the planned stock pension will be canceled for the time being – ten billion euros were actually earmarked for this. However, the traffic light coalition has not yet been able to agree on a legal basis for this.
Union is keeping its options open
The Union announced that it would examine the justification for the emergency very carefully and then decide how to vote in Parliament. “Regardless of this, I would not recommend filing a lawsuit,” said parliamentary group vice-president Mathias Middelberg to the dpa news agency. The Union had filed the first lawsuit with the Constitutional Court.
With information from Hans-Joachim Vieweger, ARD capital studio
Hans-Joachim Vieweger, ARD Berlin, tagesschau, November 27th, 2023 2:00 p.m