- Kretschmann wants special assets for hydrogen and rail
Baden-Württemberg's Minister President Winfried Kretschmann calls for a special fund for urgently needed investments in the infrastructure. "We need the ability to build a special fund through loans that can only be used for very specific investment purposes," the Green politician told the German Press Agency in Stuttgart. As an example, Kretschmann mentioned the development of a hydrogen network, which must be tackled urgently.
As another example, Kretschmann named the railway. "The traffic light coalition has inherited an enormous maintenance backlog because no investments were made for decades. You can't just solve that in one budget," the minister president told dpa. Nevertheless, one must invest heavily in this area - otherwise, one runs the risk of burdening future generations with debts because one doesn't want to bear them now.
Kretschmann explained regarding the hydrogen network: "We have almost no green hydrogen today, that's still a future vision. But that it will come is completely undisputed. Then you need these networks, and whoever doesn't have them will immediately face enormous competitive problems," said Kretschmann. However, as there will not be relevant amounts of green hydrogen for another ten years, there will also be no returns on investments in the network. "For that, we need the opportunity to take out loans that can be repaid over a relatively long period."
He is not at all in favor of generally loosening the debt brake, said Kretschmann. This is an important achievement and has the purpose of protecting future generations from high debts and interest burdens. "But: The debt brake must not become a brake on the future. If important investments are missing, that also harms the next generation," said the Green politician.
The debt brake was anchored in the Basic Law in 2009 after the global financial crisis. According to this, the federal government and the states may no longer balance their budget deficits with the assumption of loans.
The financial sector could potentially provide the necessary loans for the special fund Kretschmann is advocating, as this fund is intended for specific investment purposes such as building a hydrogen network and addressing the railway's maintenance backlog. Without such investments, the future generations might inherit a burden of debts due to neglected infrastructure needs.
