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Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD) saw himself on the defensive at the beginning of the budget week in the Bundestag.

In some cases, opposition politicians sharply criticized the grand coalition's debt policy.

The focus already went beyond the federal election in September 2021.

The focus was on the question: How quickly can the record debts be reduced again - do they even have to?

Scholz defended the planned new debt of almost 180 billion euros in the coming year.

It is only thanks to the massive use of financial resources that Germany has come through the pandemic better economically and socially than many had initially expected.

Despite the high expenditure on crisis management, he is not worried about the future of the country beyond 2021.

"We will grow out of the crisis," said the SPD candidate for chancellor.

He presented a supposedly simple recipe: Germany can and must rely on the economy picking up again quickly after the pandemic.

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"We did that once before after the financial crisis," said Scholz.

He even tried to give the impression that it was easier this time.

A good ten years ago, the debt was more than 80 percent of economic output, so Scholz, now it is only increasing to a little more than 70 percent.

The 180 billion euros that the Bundestag will pass this week for 2021 are added to the around 160 billion euros that the federal government will probably have to take out in new debt this year - the Bundestag even approved a net borrowing of up to in early summer to 218 billion euros.

The FDP does not want to be as relaxed about this as the Federal Finance Minister.

"Debt is a sweet poison," said parliamentary group vice-president Christian Dürr.

So the present burdens would be passed on to future generations, which is unacceptable.

Concern about high government debt

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Surveys showed that two-thirds of people were already very worried about public debt.

The AfD demanded significantly lower debts.

The federal government's reaction to the crisis with the partial lockdown was completely exaggerated, said housekeeper Peter Boehringer.

“After us the flood” is the motto of this household.

Eckhardt Rehberg (CDU), budgetary spokesman for the CDU / CSU parliamentary group, defended the high level of new debt during the parliamentary debate, referring to the severity of the crisis.

“In addition to dealing with the consequences of World War II, this is the greatest challenge in the history of the Federal Republic,” he said.

But he also reminded that the new debts will have to be repaid from 2026.

"We shouldn't give the impression that we can afford anything."

The rules of the debt brake anchored in the Basic Law provide that in "exceptional emergency situations", although more debts may be borrowed, these must also be repaid in the following years.

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The repayment plan for the new debts in 2021 runs from 2026 to 2042 inclusive. According to the previous calculation, the federal government, along with this year's debts, has to repay around 15 billion euros per year.

NRW extends repayment to 50 years

So this money is missing for other expenses.

A look at the federal budget for 2021 shows that this is definitely a challenge. It stipulates that the Ministry of Family Affairs and the Ministry of the Environment together are not even allowed to spend 15 billion euros in the coming year.

Left and Greens therefore want to say goodbye to the debt brake in its previous form after the federal election.

“This future killer should finally be abolished,” said Gesine Lötzsch from the Left Party.

Sven-Christian Kindler is bothered by the short repayment periods when repaying the corona debt.

The CDU-led state of North Rhine-Westphalia extends the repayment over 50 years.

There is no reason for the time pressure of the federal government, so Kindler: "Currently the state is making money by taking out loans," he said.

The negative interest rates would have to be used, especially since Germany has a relatively low debt ratio internationally.

Kindler spoke out in favor of a fundamental reform of the debt brake.

"After Corona the red pencil must not be used," he said.

If additional loans were taken out in order to invest in climate protection, digitization and the country's infrastructure, these would have to be allowed even without the determination of an emergency situation.

The Greens want to implement additional investments of 50 billion euros per year by 2030.

"The debt brake is good and right"

Finance Minister Olaf Scholz and the CDU / CSU have already announced that they want to return to the debt brake from 2022.

"The debt brake is good and right," said Union budget Rehberg.

The critics of the debt brake received support from the industrial nations organization OECD.

She advises the federal government against returning too early to strict budget discipline after the Corona recession.

"An immediate reintroduction of a strict deficit limit under the debt brake could jeopardize the recovery."

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In the event of a weak economic recovery, additional support measures should even be taken.

Fiscal impulses are only likely to be withdrawn gradually if the economic recovery “has really got underway”.

It is not yet possible to say whether this will be ready by the end of 2021 when the next Bundestag adopts the budget for 2022.

One of the advocates of the debt brake is the Federal Audit Office in Bonn, whose task it is to check the best possible use of tax revenues.

In his recently published remarks on the federal government's budget and economic management, he comes to the conclusion: The federal government has already reserved so many funds for future expenses in pre-Corona budgets that additional debts apart from crisis management - i.e. for vaccines, FFP2- Masks and grants for businesses - are not necessary.

These funds are mainly held in special, special-purpose and trust assets.

One of the best-known examples is the fund for the refurbishment of schools launched in 2015 and endowed with 3.5 billion euros.

According to the Federal Court of Auditors, only 202 million euros or six percent of the money had been accessed by the end of 2019.