The federal government needs less debt in 2021 - criticism of Lindner's course

Created: 2022-01-14Updated: 2022-01-14, 12:48 p.m

Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP, l) and Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) in the Bundestag.

© Kay Nietfeld/dpa

The new finance minister wants to be “careful” with taxpayers' money.

For 2021 he has good news.

But that doesn't change the criticism of his latest budget plans.

Berlin - The federal government had to incur less debt last year than planned.

Even if you take the planned supplementary budget into account, the net borrowing was 24.8 billion euros lower than expected, said Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) in the Bundestag.

“So we do what is necessary.

But it is not exhausted what would be possible, ”said Lindner.

The aim is to limit debt to the bare minimum.

The Bundestag had given the federal government new debts of 240 billion in 2021 because of the Corona crisis and had drawn up an emergency regulation in the debt brake.

A total of almost EUR 85 billion of these credit authorizations remained unused for the time being.

The debt ratio rose less than planned to around 70 percent of economic output - and is thus well below the value during the financial crisis (82 percent in 2010) and, according to the Ministry of Finance, also lower than in the other G7 industrialized nations.

According to Lindner, the positive development is partly due to the fact that the economy developed much better than expected during the Corona crisis.

The comprehensive state support for employees and companies also contributed to this.

Because the economy was doing better, tax revenues bubbled up more than expected.

In addition, less money was spent.

The fact that not all planned funds, for example for state corona aid, were called up should play a role here.

Criticism of the supplementary budget

Lindner wants to save most of the remaining credit authorizations, 60 billion euros, with a supplementary budget in the energy and climate fund. The money is to be used in the coming years for investments in climate protection that failed during the pandemic. "It is prudent to strengthen the state's ability to act after a crisis for future crises," emphasized Lindner. The supplementary budget was intended to reserve "unused opportunities" from the previous year in order to catch up on investments and provide impetus for economic recovery after the pandemic.

However, the opposition and the Federal Court of Auditors consider the plans to be unconstitutional or at least doubtful. The Court of Auditors argued that the connection between the EUR 60 billion allocation to the energy and climate fund and the fight against the corona pandemic was “not conclusively explained”. Climate change is not an acute, sudden crisis, but an ongoing challenge that has to be dealt with using normal budgetary rules.

The CDU MP Mathias Middelberg also criticized in the debate in the Bundestag that Lindner wanted to accumulate debt.

It is not about a “constitutional petitesse”.

He asked Lindner to withdraw the supplementary budget.

The Union has already announced that it will go to court if necessary.

AfD MP Peter Boehringer also spoke of an unconstitutional supplementary budget.

Lindner: Debt brake again from 2023

On the other hand, the SPD politician Michael Schrodi accused the Union of stepping on the brakes on the economy.

In order to avoid an “economic long-Covid”, it is important to invest in climate protection now, for example.

The Green MP Sven-Christian Kindler said that the supplementary budget is about an "investment injection" for the economy.

According to the Ministry of Finance, federal investments of 45.8 billion euros were the second-highest value ever last year - exceeded only by the pandemic year 2020. Around three quarters of the investment pots were exhausted.

Lindner emphasized that the debt brake should apply normally again from 2023.

"We want to switch from the fiscal policy crisis mode to the fiscal policy design mode," he announced.

At the same time, however, there should be “powerful impulses for economic recovery after the pandemic”.

The federal government sees fiscal policy as “enabling policy”.

Transformation, technology and talent development were prioritized in the budget.

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"We want to enable this country to dare to make progress," said Lindner.

There will be no tax increases, instead the government is working on tax relief.

He mentioned, for example, the planned abolition of the EEG surcharge for electricity customers from 2023. dpa