In view of rising prices, SPD leader Esken considers a return to the debt brake in 2023 to be unrealistic. This contradicts the plans of the FDP – the social democrat has received clear criticism from the parliamentary group of the Liberals.
FDP parliamentary group leader Christian Dürr has clearly contradicted the demand by SPD leader Saskia Esken for a further suspension of the debt brake. “The demand for a renewed suspension of the debt brake does not get any better if you keep repeating it. If we do not comply with the debt brake in 2023, we would make the state itself the inflation driver,” said Dürr. “By complying with the debt brake, on the other hand, we are slowing down inflation, preventing further price increases and, by the way, also complying with our constitution.”
However, further relief would have to be initiated, said Dürr. “Instead of ‘left pocket, right pocket’, however, we have to relieve the strain structurally. To do this, we should aim to reduce the cold progression and thus relieve the strain directly and permanently,” he said.
Esken said on Sunday in ZDF’s “summer interview” that given the burden on the population from rising prices, she did not think a return to the debt brake in the coming year was feasible. “I think we have to suspend the debt brake again,” she said. In order to be able to finance this necessary financial relief for people with middle and low incomes, a stronger contribution from the wealthy will certainly be necessary. Income tax relief, on the other hand, is “not a way to broadly relieve the population, we have to find other ways”.
Criticism of Esken’s statements also came from FDP member of the Bundestag Frank Schäffler. “When Esken speaks out in favor of lifting the debt brake, she also speaks out indirectly for higher inflation, which hits low earners in particular,” Schäffler wrote on Twitter. The FDP chairman and finance minister, Christian Lindner, recently also warned that new borrowing would increase inflation. “Economically, it is harmful during inflation to continue to drive up prices with government spending,” Lindner told the daily newspaper “Welt” in June.
For the first time after three exceptional years due to the corona pandemic, the debt brake anchored in the Basic Law is to be observed again in the 2023 federal budget. This provides for only a small net borrowing.
