A debt-financed special fund to relieve the burden on the economy? Absolutely not, says Finance Minister Lindner – and thus clearly rejects an initiative by Economics Minister Habeck.
Just yesterday, Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) brought a special fund worth billions into play in order to relieve the burden on companies in Germany – and now comes the immediate rejection from Finance Minister Christian Lindner: The proposal to set up a debt-financed special fund had not been agreed with his house, said the FDP politician from “Welt am Sonntag”.
“The idea was surprising in every respect,” said Lindner. And Habeck’s move clearly shows that he is dissatisfied with the traffic light’s current economic policy and wants a completely different course. This is an extremely unusual occurrence. He was not convinced by subsidies on credit, Lindner continued. “In this way we would deform the social market economy.” Instead, more flexibility is needed on the labor market and less bureaucracy.
Habeck wants to address structural problems
Habeck justified his proposal by saying that the structural problems of the German economy could be solved with a special fund. Because the debt brake should be adhered to by the traffic light government through a coalition agreement, a new special fund is a possible way out. Companies could then be granted tax breaks and additional depreciation options – which is also what companies are demanding.
Habeck did not quantify how much money he would budget for this, but said that the so-called Growth Opportunities Act could be increased by a factor of ten or 50. The volume of the planned law, which is currently stuck in the mediation committee of the Bundestag and Bundesrat, is around seven billion euros per year from 2024 and a total of over 32 billion euros in the coming years.