Why the CDU bigwigs now want to sink the balanced budget

After years and years of austerity imposed on the Euro-weak of southern Europe and after having had the balanced budget introduced into the Italian Constitution, now that Germany is in a deep economic and social crisis and just a few months before the elections, the CDU bigwigs realise that to avoid an electoral drubbing they have to change their tune and narrative: contrordine subjects, the balanced budget is a crazy shit! Gabor Steingart on Focus.de comments on the proposal of Merkel's right-hand man, Helge Braun, who in the past few days explained in Handelsblatt that the time has come to go beyond the balanced budget. From Focus.de

In every film production, a double is used for the most dangerous and action scenes. For Angela Merkel, this role is played by her office manager at the Chancellery. Helge Braun is brave and loyal. And like no other he knows the script dictated by the leading actress by heart. He enjoys taking the shots intended for her and grabs the splinters that would otherwise fly close to the Chancellor's ears.

And this time in "Handelsblatt" he has come out in favour of a new debt-financed social policy, which means nothing more than a departure from the traditional fiscal policy of the bourgeois parties.

Braun proposes to finance the welfare state systematically and until 2023, not only with contributions, but also with tax revenues. This will make it possible to avoid increasing social security contributions for employees and employers.

This permanent subsidy of the welfare state from the state coffers will have consequences for fiscal policy, as reported by our stand-in. The former physician-assistant, who wrote his doctoral thesis on "heart palpitations during an operation", writes in fact in "Handelsblatt":

"The balanced budget (Schuldenbremse) in the coming years cannot be met, even in the case of extremely strict budgetary discipline. “

"Deviation from this debt rule should under no circumstances be legitimised by individual decisions within the meaning of Article 115 of the Basic Law."

"Therefore in Germany it would make sense to combine a strategy for economic recovery with an amendment to the Basic Law that provides a reliable path for making new debt on a limited basis, at least in the coming years."

As a reminder, the current rule is that the federal government can only raise new debt to a very limited extent, i.e. up to a maximum of 0.35% of GDP. This debt limit was already included in the Basic Law in 2009 and can only be lifted temporarily and in emergency situations - such as during a pandemic.

Helge Braun and the debt brake: CDU and CSU outraged by proposal

There is also great indignation within the party about the proposal to dismantle the Schuldenmbremse. The new CDU leader Armin Laschet, in fact, expressed a clear rejection of Braun: the Union has always been the party of sound public finances, said the Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia during the online meeting of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, participants report. And addressing Braun:

"If the members of the government should find it necessary to change the Basic Law, they should first of all coordinate with the party and the parliamentary group "

The leader of the Union's parliamentary group Ralph Brinkhaus classified Braun's proposal as an "expression of a personal opinion".

"This is not my position, it is not the position of our politicians who are experts on economics and the budget, and it is not even a position capable of gaining a majority in the CDU/CSU parliamentary group. “

The reaction of the media also indicates how much with his proposal Braun is shaking the Union from the foundations. A Union that still in 2019 was advertising itself on Twitter with the following sentence:

In the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, economic correspondent from Berlin René Höltschi notes:

"From an economic point of view, your proposal is an absurd idea."

Ulf Poschardt, editor-in-chief in Die Welt, notes:

"The fact that the minister at the Chancellery without prior consultation could have thrown this topic into the political space is unthinkable. And this makes it increasingly clear that the Chancellor is moving further and further away from the political centre and to the left."

In the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung", economic editor Manfred Schäfer writes:

"Armin Laschet, as the new chairman, is trying to unite the party and contain Merz. The crossfire from the Chancellery office does not help much. “

On "Handelsblatt" the head of the political section Thomas Sigmund comments as follows:

"Armin Laschet has only been president of the CDU for a week, the Chancellor is showing him who is the cook and who is the waiter. “

The deputy editorial director of the parliamentary office of the "SZ" Cerstin Gammelin, on the other hand, sees the change in strategy as a rapprochement with the Greens:

"The Greens want in any case to add to the rule on austerity already in the constitution, a new rule on investments, in order to avoid having, also in the future, bridges, administrations and schools destroyed because of excessive savings. Add to this the constraints of the pandemic. It was easy enough to see that not everything would remain as it was. And who knows, maybe the debate will eventually serve to bring the Greens closer to the Union than they thought possible."

In conclusion: the stand-in did a great job. Shrapnel flew everywhere, but the leading lady was unharmed.