Parliament - Woidke promotes aid package: Debate on debt brake
Brandenburg's Minister-President Dietmar Woidke (SPD) has spoken in the state parliament in favor of taking on new debt to support citizens, municipalities and the economy. "We need a strong state that is capable of acting and that stands by the people in the state when they need help," explained the head of government in the state parliament's topical hour on Wednesday. "A state that takes away people's fears about the future and gives them hope."
The state parliament debated the consequences of the Federal Constitutional Court's budget ruling for the Brandenburg package. As a consequence, the red-black-green coalition wants to secure its aid package with debt amounting to two billion euros. To this end, the state parliament is to once again declare an emergency situation for 2024 due to the consequences of the Russian attack on Ukraine and high inflation.
Woidke pointed out that the Brandenburg package includes 100 million euros to support families with children, 700 million euros for local authorities, 190 million euros for hospitals and 90 million euros for the economy. "The Brandenburg package stands for cohesion and solidarity in uncertain times," emphasized Woidke.
AfD parliamentary group leader Hans-Christoph Berndt, on the other hand, called the declaration of an emergency "absurd": after all, Brandenburg was the top state in terms of economic growth this year. In addition, inflation in Germany had fallen to 3.2 percent and there had been no natural disasters this year, Berndt explained. "It is contemptuous of democracy that you want to pass an unconstitutional budget," Berndt accused the coalition.
The declaration of an emergency allows for an exception to the debt brake, which has severely limited the ability to take out new loans since 2020. SPD parliamentary group leader Daniel Keller called for a fundamental reform of the debt brake. Since it came into force, the debt brake has not been adhered to in any federal budget and almost all federal states have declared an emergency every year, said Keller: "A rule that is permanently replaced by its exception has not passed the reality check."
In contrast, parliamentary group leader Sebastian Walter from the opposition Left Party faction called for the complete abolition of the debt brake. This would prevent necessary investments in the future, criticized Walter: "What we don't invest in now will fall on our feet in the future!"
CDU parliamentary group leader Jan Redmann, on the other hand, vehemently defended the debt brake. "Without the debt brake, we will have an ever-growing mountain of debt," he warned. Only a moderate reform is necessary, Redmann said. "We need a regulation that is sustainable in the long term and prevents a further spiral of debt." Green parliamentary group leader Benjamin Raschke also called for a reform: "The debt brake needs to be revised in an intergenerational manner," he said.
MP Péter Vida from BVB/Freie Wähler accused the coalition of not being in a financial but a political emergency in Brandenburg. After 30 years of SPD state politics, there is an education emergency, an emergency in health care and in dilapidated traffic routes, he said. Vida advised the coalition to follow biblical budgetary principles. "Save in good times in order to be prepared for bad times."
The large majority of the state parliament referred the coalition's motion to declare an emergency for 2024 to the budget committee, against the votes of the AfD parliamentary group. A final decision on the matter is to be made in the state parliament on Friday. The Left Party parliamentary group's motion to abolish the debt brake was rejected by the other parliamentary groups.
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Source: www.stern.de
