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Traffic light coalition negotiations: Wolfgang Kubicki rejects loans for state investments

2021-10-20T04:52:19.779Z


Climate protection, digitization: the plans for a possible traffic light government will be expensive. Wolfgang Kubicki wants to hold on to the debt brake. His suggestion: more »creativity in the discussion«.


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Wolfgang Kubicki (FDP) wants a solid budget policy

Photo: ANNEGRET HILSE / REUTERS

Who should pay for that?

In the upcoming coalition negotiations about a possible traffic light coalition, a tough struggle for finances is emerging: FDP Vice Wolfgang Kubicki has rejected plans by the SPD and the Greens to finance state investments by public companies.

“There will be no circumvention of the debt brake in any form whatsoever.

That’s how it is recorded in the exploratory paper, ”he told the Düsseldorf“ Rheinische Post ”.

Loan financing from public companies

In the end there will be »sufficient funding proposals for our projects«, Kubicki was convinced.

"We need a solid budget policy and more creativity in the discussion, which we then lead internally." Several politicians from the SPD and the Greens had brought up the possibility of loan financing through public companies such as the railway or investment companies.

Greens boss Robert Habeck assured on Tuesday evening on ZDF: "It will not fail because of money to make Germany climate-neutral." There are a number of proposals in the room so that public and private investments increase significantly.

Habeck spoke of around 50 billion euros in necessary investments annually.

The co-chairman of the Greens left details open.

Annalena Baerbock, head of the Greens, spoke again in an interview with the newspapers of the Funke media group in favor of "a limited amount of credit financing" as part of the debt brake.

"There are also public companies such as Deutsche Bahn AG or the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau, which are already financing part of their investments by taking out loans," she said.

Baerbock emphasized that there was a massive need for investment.

"If you take seriously the fact that we have to keep the country in good shape and become climate-neutral, public investments and investment grants of an additional 50 billion euros per year will be necessary over the next few years," she said.

Savings could be made on environmentally and climate-damaging subsidies, for example.

These should be gradually dismantled, demanded Baerbock.

Juso boss frustrated by the lack of relief for lower and middle income groups

Baerbock also made it clear that the Greens do not want to make a new attempt at tax increases in the coalition negotiations.

“We have agreed cornerstones.

This includes that taxes such as income tax are not increased, "said the Green politician.

Juso boss Jessica Rosenthal hopes that the SPD can get even more out of the coalition negotiations.

Rosenthal was dissatisfied with the fact that relief for lower and middle income groups and burdens for "rich upper percentages" with the FDP could not be implemented in the explorations.

"And that frustrates me," she told the Passauer Neue Presse.

In the socio-political area, however, there are many things that make her satisfied.

There are still a lot of gaps where she still hopes for improvements.

Local transport would have to be expanded, ticket prices lowered and Hartz IV with higher standard rates and a secure subsistence level surmounted.

A pay-as-you-go apprenticeship guarantee is particularly important for the Jusos.

Finances are one of the sticking points in the upcoming coalition negotiations.

According to the exploratory paper of the parties, necessary future investments are to be made possible “within the framework of the constitutional debt brake”.

Taxes such as income, corporate and sales taxes should not be increased.

muk / AFP / dpa

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2021-10-20

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