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Juso boss Rosenthal: "We can't afford any ideological stubbornness"
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Thomas Trutschel/photothek.de / imago images/photothek
The SPD is calling for a complete abolition of the state debt brake.
The state must invest and not just fulfill the necessary tasks, says Sebastian Roloff, spokesman for the SPD group "Forum Demokratische Linke 21", the SPIEGEL.
"That's why I think the debt brake is wrong." Households are consolidated in times of economic upswing, and that applies even without a debt brake.
In order to be able to relieve the burden on citizens in the face of drastically increased energy prices, "we cannot afford to be ideologically obstinate, but have to overturn the debt brake," says Juso boss Jessica Rosenthal.
"We have to do everything we can to get through autumn and winter well."
For the SPD, this would mean a change of course.
In the past, leading Social Democrats, such as the SPD prime ministers, have only spoken out in favor of suspending the debt brake again next year.
Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) also rejects that.
The SPD faction leaders from the federal and state governments also want to talk about their position on the debt brake at a conference next week.
The Bremen SPD faction leader Mustafa Gungör criticized in SPIEGEL that the formal observance of the rule had degenerated into a "purely ideological seal of approval" that it was "out of date".
Güngör's demand: "We have to overcome the fetish of the debt brake and the associated financial policy crisis mode." A temporary suspension is correct in the short term, says Güngör, but falls short "in view of the urgently needed expansion of public investments".
»We would do well to lead this discussion aggressively«
Under no circumstances does he want to use debt to finance rising social spending or transfer payments in the future, says Güngör.
Rather, it is a matter of “taking precautionary measures in terms of growth policy and making the necessary future tasks and investments now” in order to leave future generations with opportunities for jobs and an intact infrastructure.
The tasks are so great that no country can handle them alone, says the man from Bremen and demands: "The SPD would do well to lead this discussion aggressively."
