The corona crisis is becoming more and more expensive for the state.
A minister Angela Merkel comes up with a well-known proposal - the SPD reacts annoyed.
Berlin - It is a Gretchen question raised by
Economics Minister Peter Altmaier
(CDU) in the middle of the
Corona crisis
.
Should Germany sell its "silverware" to cover the costs of the pandemic?
Even if privatization projects, for example in the case of public housing ownership or in the area of transport, have failed a lot -
Angela Merkel's
head of department says: Yes.
“The value of the state holdings has grown considerably in recent years.
That is why we should examine which state investments can be reduced, ”Altmaier told
Welt am Sonntag
.
That also brings money into the state treasury, which can be used well for future investments.
The federal government holds
investments
worth billions,
for example in the post office and Telekom,
but also in the
transmission network operator 50Hertz
.
Corona crisis in Germany: Altmaier now wants to sell “silverware” - and finds supporters
Altmaier's move comes in the midst of a debate about how the
federal budget
and taxpayers' money should go on
in the coming years
.
The Union rejects
tax increases
- the
debt brake
is also part of its brand essence.
This has recently been shown by the numerous energetic protests from the Union after
Chancellery chief Helge Braun
(CDU) started a debate about changes to the debt brake - and received criticism from his new
party leader Armin Laschet
,
among others
.
Altmaier also spoke out against increasing taxes.
"The faster the economy gets going again and can let its self-healing powers work, the more tax revenue will grow without us having to increase taxes," he said to
Welt am Sonntag
.
Altmaier received approval from the
FDP
.
Party leader Christian Lindner
said on Twitter that the proposal was not new, but had been
put forward
by the Liberals - and also the
Greens
-
in 2017
.
"Selling the silverware is not a plan to cope with the costs of the crisis," said
Left
parliamentary group leader Dietmar Bartsch.
He again demanded a one-off property tax for the “super rich”.
Corona privatizations?
SPD annoyed by Altmaier's push - "Discussions of the 1990s"
The background to the dispute: The
debt brake
anchored in the Basic Law was
suspended
for 2020 and 2021
- so that the state
could pull out
the
“bazooka”
, as Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD) called it;
so that the crisis can be countered with great firepower.
Support programs worth billions were launched to keep companies and jobs, as well as an economic stimulus program.
However,
digitization
is advancing, plus
climate protection
.
So there are expensive tasks ahead of future federal governments.
The current debt brake only allows new loans to a very limited extent.
However, in view of the week-long lockdown and the risks in the corona crisis, the federal government expects less growth than initially hoped for this year.
So it could be that the economy does not start in such a way that tax revenues rise again massively.
The topic could be relevant especially for the election campaign.
Because Altmaier's coalition partner is strictly against the move anyway.
SPD parliamentary group vice Sören Bartol
told the dpa: “I actually thought that we are now further than the privatization discussions of the 1990s.
The fact that the state is selling its silverware back then was not a good idea and it is not now after Corona. ”Independent of this,
investments
with which the state protected large companies from bankruptcy during the crisis are not invested in the long term.
(
AFP / dpa / fn
)