Haseloff in a rage: "Haven't we heard the shot?"

Haseloff in a rage: "Haven't we heard the shot?"

The political emergency in view of this year's and future budgets of the federal government is also on the minds of Anne Will's guests this Sunday. Where can savings be made? Is there a lack of money at all? And what does the future of the debt brake look like? The discussion is lively.

Two minutes and 47 seconds. That's how much time Chancellor Olaf Scholz has taken so far to address the citizens of Germany in light of the landmark ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court. Friday's video statement is more or less a teaser for what the Social Democrat will say in his government statement in the Bundestag on Tuesday. So far, however, the impression remains that the head of government is unable to provide the people in his country with the explanations they rightly expect.

"The uncertainty is enormous, among citizens, but also among companies," said journalist Ann-Kathrin Büüsker on "Anne Will" on Sunday evening. "I think very few people realize what is at stake right now." The Climate and Transformation Fund (KTF), which was relieved of 60 billion euros by the judges in Karlsruhe a week and a half ago, affects many areas of life. At the moment, companies cannot rely on the fact that the investments they want to make in Germany will be supported, says the capital city correspondent for Deutschlandfunk. This is a huge problem and the government's communication is a "disaster".

Her colleague Julia Löhr, who is also a guest on the talk show, agrees. The communication is "lousy". "We have a chancellor who is largely silent. An Economics Minister who talks his head off and blames the CDU/CSU. And we have a finance minister who has to be translated afterwards by his press spokeswoman because nobody understood his statement," summarizes the economic correspondent for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Nobody in the government seemed to have been prepared for the worst-case scenario - namely the devastating ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court and the resulting imbalances in budget planning, says Büüsker. "I think that was negligent."

SPD leader Lars Klingbeil is trying to counter the idea that the government was caught off guard and that the Chancellor did not communicate enough. Scholz will explain himself on Tuesday to those who will ultimately approve the budget. The representative of the traffic light coalition in the talk round quickly tries to shift the focus away from past failures to the potential of the future. He firmly rebuffs the corresponding questions from presenter Will. The government's job must now be to clarify how to proceed with the expected investments.

Haseloff: Prevent reputational damage

At the federal level, the CDU/CSU is currently not in favor of reforming the debt brake. The heads of the federal states have recently appeared more willing to compromise. Reiner Haseloff is an experienced and pragmatic representative in the ARD studio. "We can't allow this budget emergency to turn into a national crisis," says the CDU politician, referring to the state and local elections next year.

He also has a particular interest in quickly finding a solution to the billion-euro hole in the KTF: A chip factory from the manufacturer Intel is to be built in Magdeburg and funded by the federal government to the tune of ten billion euros. He and his Saxon Minister-President colleague Michael Kretschmer have been personally assured by Scholz that the projects in their federal states - the Taiwanese semiconductor giant TSMC is setting up shop in Dresden, Saxony - will go ahead. According to Haseloff, anything else would damage Germany's reputation and would be irreparable.

The people of Saxony-Anhalt are known as early risers. It is therefore not surprising that Haseloff and lawyers known to him predicted the failure of the KTF special fund last year. At least for this year, there seems to be a quick solution to the plight: The federal government declares an emergency, as in previous years, and suspends the debt brake. For Haseloff, this is a legitimate solution.

The Minister President believes that the country is in a permanent emergency situation due to the aftermath of the coronavirus crisis, the financial needs of war-torn Ukraine and the situation in the Middle East. This would pave the way for a suspension of the debt brake in the 2024 budget. Lars Klingbeil is fundamentally in favor of the emergency principle: "If this path can be taken, then it should be taken." At the same time, he is in favor of a reform of the debt brake, which should make large-scale government investment possible.

"I am a big fan of the debt brake"

"We don't currently have an extraordinary emergency situation that is beyond the control of the state," says Julia Löhr. The energy crisis is over, the climate crisis is a generational task and not an external shock that suddenly hit Germany. The government must therefore try to smooth out the next budget without the corresponding clause. "I am a big fan of the debt brake." This is an instrument for taxpayers to ensure that politicians do not spend their tax money on useless things. And anyway, the journalist believes it is a "myth" that there is not enough money to invest.

So what can the German tax authorities do? On the one hand, it is about investing in the future, and on the other, about making savings. "What the Federal Constitutional Court reveals is that politicians need to be honest," explains DIW President Marcel Fratzscher. The state - not only the traffic light government, but also its predecessors - had distributed a lot of money in the past. The famous phrases "with full hands" and "watering can" follow. Karlsruhe had made it clear that it was not possible to simply bypass the budget with special funds. Politicians must set priorities in their spending - for the next 10 or 15 years, so that companies and citizens have planning security.

Over the past two decades, the German state has saved itself into the ground, Fratzscher concludes. Net investments are consistently negative. The loss in value of infrastructure such as roads exceeds government spending. The discussion about the debt brake is therefore important. A distinction must be made between bad and good debt. The aim is to improve the performance of the economy in the long term, for example by investing in education. There was a lack of money for this in the municipalities in particular. The economist sees the greatest potential in abolishing tax privileges. For example with inheritance, real estate, property gains and VAT.

Steel industry as a nonsensical sector?

"It is simply a myth that Germany is saving itself into the ground," says FAZ editor Löhr, picking up on her already well-known devaluation. With an annual budget of around 450 billion euros and the well-known special funds, "we are swimming in money". It is now a question of where savings can be made. There should be no more subsidy fireworks.

She immediately antagonizes the SPD leader with one savings target: the elimination of subsidies for the transformation of the steel industry. Not all industries are profitable in Germany, which is not the ideal country for the production of renewable energies, said Löhr. "We will always need gas or hydrogen, which we have to import from other countries at great expense." When Anne Will alludes to the many employees who would be affected by the loss of the steel industry, Löhr replies that unemployment is not the problem in view of the two million vacancies in Germany.

Klingbeil cannot accept that. "These are jobs, these are families." The Russian war of aggression had also taught us that it was important to focus on production in Germany and not to be dependent on autocratic governments. It would be easy to say on a talk show that this and that industry could disappear from Germany, but that would cause lasting damage to the country.

Finally, Reiner Haseloff goes into a rage about the benefits of chip factories. After journalist Büüsker has gone on record to say that jobs and tax revenues are only created locally, but that dependence on countries such as China is not necessarily solved, that the chips are not only used sensibly and that ecological problems such as sealed agricultural land speak against billions in subsidies, the head of the state holds a flaming monologue.

"It's not about a piece of farmland"

From the European tender, which Magdeburg won, to armaments issues and protecting the country with semiconductor technology. "It's not about a piece of land," he shouts indignantly. It had already been planned anyway and he was glad that "high-tech" rather than some logistics company would be settling there. And that's not all. Haseloff draws a connection to the importance of the EU as an agglomeration of democracies that are falling behind in the world.

Local authorities are at their limits when it comes to accommodating refugees, Haseloff continued. The discussion in the panel, on the other hand, was on a meta-level, which prompted him to say: "Have we not heard what's actually going on in this world?" It's about Ukraine, the Middle East and so on and so forth. And then, from his point of view, it's also about citizens' income, about support and demands, about work before alimony.

When moderator Will finally intervenes and brings SPD leader Klingbeil on board, he simply says: "There's a bit of a mix-up here." After all, the citizen's income is also the implementation of a ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court. The state had to give people security and not also question things like the citizen's income, the pension system or the basic child insurance. "Every minister must now look at the current situation and see where savings can be made," says Klingbeil.

Will points to the electricity and gas price brakes that Finance Minister Lindner has canceled. However, the FDP leader had gone ahead with this without consulting the coalition partners. He expects things to be discussed together in the coalition, Klingbeil says in an emphatically sober manner. Now is not the time to talk about individual measures by ministers, but to put together an overall package. When this is ready, it will be announced. Whether Scholz will do this on Tuesday in front of the members of the Bundestag is questionable. In any case, there is not much time left for the traffic light coalition. 2024 is just around the corner.

1. Christian Lindner, the Finance Minister, was criticized by Anne Will's guests for his communication regarding the budget policy, with some saying his statements were not understood by the public.
2. Reiner Haseloff, the CDU politician, believed that the budget emergency in Germany could turn into a national crisis due to the effects of the Federal Constitutional Court's ruling and the state and local elections next year.
3. According to economist Marcel Fratzscher, the German state has been saving itself into the ground for the past two decades with net investments consistently being negative.
4. Julia Löhr, an FAZ editor, argued that Germany is "swimming in money" with an annual budget of around 450 billion euros and the presence of various special funds, and suggested that there should be no more subsidy fireworks.

Source: www.ntv.de