Third relief package: countries resist cost sharing

The federal and state governments are still arguing about who should pay for the new relief package. For some prime ministers, the planned share of the federal states is too high. The debt brake is also being debated.

According to calculations by the federal government, the third relief package should bring the citizens a massive 65 billion euros – for example through one-off payments for pensioners and students, higher housing benefits and adjusted tax rates to protect employees from cold progression and the state’s inflationary gains.

Two weeks ago, the traffic light coalition agreed internally on the package. But some prime ministers are now very dissatisfied. According to their own calculations, the federal states should contribute 19 of the 65 billion euros to the package.

Hesse’s Prime Minister Boris Rhein from the CDU asks in common Morning magazine from ARD and ZDF: “Does it make sense to stand up and announce a pact in a cloak-and-dagger operation – that’s how it was – without having clarified who should pay for it? And that’s why the federal states are already saying: You can’t go into federalism put together such a package at such a high level without having clarified who will ultimately pay the bill.”

Söder: the package in its current form is “in no way capable of approval”

From Rhein’s point of view, the measures must be discussed again in order to put together a “sensible package”. SPD-led countries such as Saarland and Bremen are also demanding improvements. And Bavaria’s CSU Prime Minister Markus Söder considers the package in its current form “under no circumstances to be approved.” The federal states have never been treated so badly by a federal government.

And: Söder also puts the federal government’s debt brake up for debate in the “Augsburger Allgemeine”: “We are in an economic crisis that is bigger than Corona. That’s why a big solution is now needed in terms of financial policy – and not just small cutlery. “

Debt brake as a possible adjusting screw

Because of the corona pandemic, the debt brake stipulated in the Basic Law has been suspended for three years. It stipulates that the federal government may only take out very limited loans and thus new debt. The debt brake does not allow the countries any net borrowing at all.

Lower Saxony Prime Minister Stephan Weil from the SPD also questions the debt brake in an interview with the dpa news agency. In Weil’s federal state, there will be elections in just under three weeks. “I can’t see us getting through this situation without borrowing at least some of it,” he said.

SPD for, FDP against further debts

The SPD is now repeatedly demanding that the debt brake be suspended again in 2023. FDP Finance Minister Christian Lindner has so far successfully opposed this. He emphasized yesterday in report from Berlin, that the state’s leeway is significantly less today than at the beginning of the pandemic.

“We’re in the midst of inflation,” said Lindner. “The European Central Bank has raised its interest rates in a historic step. And that is also a clear signal to the finance ministers, not with borrowed money now, but with government spending on credit, to continue to fuel inflation.”

consultations at the end of the month

Chancellor Olaf Scholz wants to discuss the costs of the third relief package with the heads of the federal states at a conference of prime ministers on September 28.

The tone is already tense. SPD general secretary Kevin Kühnert is mainly against Bavarian Prime Minister Söder: Germany has no time for the whims of a CSU man, says Kühnert, who “looked too deep into a glass at the Oktoberfest”.