"The story of the iron Christian would be exposed as a fairy tale"
For the second time, the final and decisive budget meeting has been canceled - just as the CDU/CSU had demanded. In an interview with ntv.de, the influential CDU budget politician Middelberg explains why he believes this had to happen, what it means for the debt brake and what options remain for the coalition government.
ntv.de: Mr. Middelberg, it's easy to lose track of the budget negotiations. Let me put it this way: If this were all a soccer match, what minute would we be in now?
Mathias Middelberg: We would be in the 90th minute, but we have to go into extra time.
The federal budget for 2024 was actually supposed to be finalized this Thursday, but the decisive review meeting has now been postponed for the second time. What does this mean now? Is this what the CDU/CSU wanted?
No, this is not what we wanted. We don't want to complicate the budget deliberations. We want a constitutional budget. The traffic light should comply with the debt brake and, in principle, make do with the money that our economy generates through tax revenues.
Why can't it be adopted now?
Because we don't yet know what consequences will result from the Constitutional Court ruling and how exactly the 2023 budget will have to be changed. But that is the basis for the next budget. In our view, it will only be ready for approval once we know how the unconstitutionality of the 2023 budget can be remedied. It was therefore imperative that the traffic lights postponed the final meeting of the Budget Committee this Thursday. Otherwise, we would have run the risk of the new budget also being unconstitutional, for example if it included funds from the Economic Stabilization Fund, also known as the "double whammy". This is because it is foreseeable that these may no longer be used.
The Economic Stabilization Fund (WSF) has been blocked since Tuesday anyway.
The freeze was unavoidable because we don't know what will become of the funds.
What happens now?
First of all, Ampel has to present a supplementary budget for the current year. It could theoretically also declare an emergency for 2023 and suspend the debt brake. It could do this with its own majority. However, the story of the iron Christian, who strictly adheres to the debt brake but at the same time accumulates huge mountains of debt in shadow budgets, would then finally be exposed as a fairy tale.
The Federal Constitutional Court's ruling was about external funds, the Climate and Transformation Fund and presumably also the Economic Stabilization Fund...
No, that was not the point.
No?
That's what the government is saying to pass the buck to us. We didn't take legal action against the climate fund and certainly not against climate protection.
Mr. Habeck sees it differently.
What is true is that it was about the falsifying accounting technique that the traffic light coalition had specifically agreed in its coalition agreement. The Constitutional Court not only criticized the fact that corona funds were reallocated to climate funds. It also criticized the fact that the loans were not booked in the years in which they were actually incurred for the federal budget, but in the years in which the traffic light moved them - only internally - from the core budget to its special debt pots. The Federal Constitutional Court has now overturned these cheat entries, which were intended to conceal the circumvention of the debt brake.
Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Finance Minister Christian Lindner said last week that the federal budget was not affected by the ruling, only the economic plan of the Climate and Transformation Fund. You see it differently. Why?
It's about the deliberately incorrect booking technique of the traffic light. And this was not only the case with the 2021 supplementary budget with the 60 billion euros for the Climate Fund, but also with the WSF or "double whammy". The entire 200 billion euro credit authorizations were booked by the traffic light system for 2022, and only then were they counted towards the debt brake. However, most of the money was not to be used until 2023 and 2024, which contradicts the principle of annuality, as the Constitutional Court has made clear.
Is it still the case that you as the CDU/CSU will not take legal action against the WSF?
That is no longer necessary. I am certain that the WSF is just as unconstitutional as the supplementary budget for 2021.
Mr. Habeck also sees it that way and says there is no need to sue.
It is pleasing that the government is also coming to this realization.
The big question now is where the missing money will come from. As a constructive opposition, you are certainly thinking about this.
It will not be possible to close all the gaps immediately just by making savings. You have to admit that to the government. But at least for the coming year, it must be clear that the government is no longer just talking about a turnaround, but is actually implementing it in the budget. It must set new priorities. For example, we cannot spend every tenth euro on the Citizen's Income. We have four million recipients of the Citizen's Income who are able to work. If we managed to get one million of them into work, that would generate up to 30 billion euros in additional revenue for the federal budget.
The Greens and SPD are calling for the debt brake to be reformed, i.e. relaxed. Can you be softened?
No, we don't need to reform the debt brake.
Despite the billion-euro holes?
I don't see such huge holes in the billions. The government is making the holes for itself. It must now try to mobilize funds - through savings, as with the citizen's income, through less bureaucracy, but also through targeted investment for more growth. Then tax revenues will also rise sharply again.
However, a special fund for climate protection and transformation would also be conceivable in order to finance industrial projects from the climate and transformation fund. Would you be open to this?
As the opposition, we are always constructive. We have shown that with the Bundeswehr special fund. But now the traffic light must first be honest and fundamentally restructure the regular budget. It can't go on like this. This government has only ever created a new debt pot alongside the regular budget for every new challenge so that Christian Lindner can say he is complying with the debt brake. At the same time, the SPD and the Greens were supposed to have plenty of money to play with for social issues and climate protection via the side budgets. This party at the expense of the citizens is over after the ruling.
Volker Petersen spoke with Mathias Middelberg
- Despite the ongoing budget negotiations and the postponement of the final review meeting, Christian Lindner, the Finance Minister of the Union parliamentary group, emphasizes the importance of sticking to the debt brake and making do with the money generated through tax revenues by the economy, rather than relying on special funds such as the Economic Stabilization Fund.
- Amidst the budget impasse and the postponement of the final review meeting, Christian Lindner, a member of the Union's parliamentary group and the Finance Minister, has criticized the traffic light coalition for relying on special funds such as the Economic Stabilization Fund, also known as the "double whammy," to circumvent the debt brake, which contravenes the principle of annuality, as the Federal Constitutional Court has highlighted.
Source: www.ntv.de
