Parts of the SPD begin to push Comrade Chancellor Scholz ahead of them. The group wants the debt brake to fall. Red country leaders are shaking up agricultural cuts.
Berlin/Munich – Paper 20/243 has a bold warning on the front page: “For internal use only!” Well, the note is no longer entirely internal; it causes big headlines in the largest newspapers in the republic – like “SPD wants to reform the debt brake” and “Scholz against the rest of the comrades”.
Note 20/243 collects key points on how the federal government should budget in the future; written by SPD financial politicians for the SPD winter meeting starting today in Berlin. The paper is exciting because it demands a U-turn. The debt brake should be weakened; it is “no longer up to date in its current form. The current rigid rules are a risk to the prosperity of current and future generations.” Debt is not bad per se, it must be “used in such a way that it makes economic sense.”
Dispute over the debt brake: SPD parliamentary group against Chancellor Scholz and Finance Minister Lindner
The debt brake currently says: The federal government is only allowed to borrow 0.35 percent of nominal gross domestic product. The fans include Finance Minister Christian Lindner, FDP – but also his predecessor Olaf Scholz, SPD. The current chancellor is under pressure from his own parliamentary group to relax the rules and finance investments more externally. This goes far beyond the coalition's plans to suspend the debt brake for one year for individual crises and disasters, such as floods.
“We have to invest more, up to 50 billion euros annually,” warns SPD budget politician Michael Schrodi, a Bavarian. “It’s a location question.” He recalls aggressive investment programs and industrial policies in the USA and China. Schrodi was responsible for a similar passage in the key proposal for the federal party conference in December. The motion was passed unanimously. Party conference paper is patient, but now it's about MPs who make concrete decisions about policy. Group leader Rolf Mützenich is fully behind it. What's more, he wants to go into battle with it. “The question of the debt brake belongs both in the election campaign and on the agenda of German politics,” says Mützenich.
Not even the CDU is united behind the debt brake – but Merz remains stubborn
Nobody from the left openly wants to jostle the Chancellor; the FDP is named as the addressee. “I don’t think we’re doing any harm to the traffic lights if we, as a self-confident faction, sharpen our position vis-à-vis our coalition partners,” says SPD MP Carolin Wagner. Other parties also disagree. The Union, for example, in which the CSU and CDU leader Friedrich Merz are strictly sticking to the debt brake, and individual country leaders want to overturn it.
In politics, the old rule applies that contradiction only becomes dangerous when it comes from within your own party. This is now also happening to Scholz with the cuts for farmers. Here several SPD prime ministers are taking a frontal stand against Scholz. Manuela Schwesig, Anke Rehlinger and Stephan Weil are openly calling for the resolutions to be withdrawn.
Almost half of SPD voters want a change of chancellor – Pistorius should take over
Scholz remains firm on this issue for the time being. Or, like that FAZ writes that, like Angela Merkel, he “tends to be stubborn when put under pressure.” In any case, the Chancellor said on Tuesday evening: “The federal government stands by it.” When it comes to reducing subsidies, there are always opponents who say, “but not this one.” A spokesman also reiterated Scholz's stance before a meeting with farmers on Wednesday evening.
Something is brewing over the Chancellor? For now, that may be a huge exaggeration. But Scholz is not sacrosanct in his SPD. Just on Monday, a survey came out according to which a narrow majority of SPD voters (47.9 to 47.1) thought Boris Pistorius, the current Defense Minister, was the better chancellor. However, Pistorius is certainly not a favorite of the left-wingers in the SPD.
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