Parliament turns a deaf ear to the criticism of the EU’s partners who consider this solution unsupportive of an energy conflict that is continental
The Bundestag, the federal Parliament, has approved this Friday an energy rescue umbrella for Germany of 200,000 million euros; a measure criticized by numerous partners of the European Union for considering it an unsupportive and national solution to a continental problem. The deputies of the ruling tripartite of Social Democrats, Greens and Liberals provided a large majority in the vote in the lower house for the new law, which was recently drafted by the Government of the Federal Chancellor, the Social Democrat Olaf Scholz. “This is the basic condition for us to have a brake on gas prices at the latest in March,” said Matthias Miersch, deputy chairman of the SPD parliamentary group. The purpose of the initiative is to enter the 200,000 million euros already this year, which will be financed on the basis of credits, in the so-called Economic Stability Fund (WSF) created during the coronavirus pandemic and which will be adapted to the new needs.
To assume the new credits, the lower house had to establish the emergency situation that the country is experiencing in the face of the energy crisis unleashed by the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. This makes it possible to avoid compliance this year with the so-called “debt brake”, the constitutional duty of the German executives to avoid assuming greater indebtedness and the obligation to reduce the existing one.
the sack of money
The federal finance minister, the liberal Christian Lindner, has been convinced that Germany will return to normality next year and it will be possible to fulfill the constitutional imperative. The conservative opposition of Bavarian Christian Democrats and Social Christians had already announced in advance that they would reject the initiative. Mathías Middelberg, number two of his parliamentary group, criticized the approval of the law for the lack of concepts on the part of the Executive to curb and stabilize the prices of gas and electricity.
“All they want is to have a sack of money in the basement of this government and then they will think about what they are going to do with it,” said Middelberg in the debate prior to the vote, which has questioned the constitutionality of the new law. The deputies of The Left, who have criticized the tripartite for lack of social objectives when dealing with the energy crisis, but also the ultra-nationalists and Eurosceptics of Alternative for Germany, in favor of withdrawing all sanctions dictated against Moscow for the invasion of Ukraine, recover the supply of Russian gas and negotiate peace with President Vladimir Putin, making unacceptable concessions for the rest of the German political formations.
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