Although the economy is recovering surprisingly quickly and the worst of the pandemic seems to be over, Olaf Scholz is apparently planning again with loans of around 100 billion euros for the next year.
After initially defending the balanced budget as Federal Finance Minister to the displeasure of many party friends, he made a remarkable change of course.
It almost seems as if Scholz is eager to fulfill the spending requests of his cabinet colleagues. In any case, in the shadow of the pandemic, spending discipline has been lost. The SPD politician has moved away from the classic role of finance minister who guards the public treasury. This is likely to have something to do with his second role as his party's candidate for chancellor.
When the SPD wrested the Ministry of Finance from the Union and Scholz expanded it into a Vice Chancellery, it was said reassuringly: They are not planning a second Willy Brandt House.
It should turn out differently.
The civil servant state secretary Wolfgang Schmidt, whom the minister brought from Hamburg at the time, tweets everything that Scholz can in any way count as a success as a loyal Eckart.
At the same time, the practical work in the ministry has lost its importance.
True Castle Theater
Scholz had a reputation for being a solidly working politician who also takes care of annoying details.
He also lovingly cultivates this picture himself.
But doubts about his actions grow.
When Scholz was still head of government in Hamburg, the financial administration of the Hanseatic city wanted to drop a tax claim against the private bank Warburg.
The federal government first had to issue an instruction to ensure that the millions from dubious tax arrangements around the dividend date flowed back to the tax authorities.
Whether Scholz exerted influence behind the scenes in favor of the bank cannot be proven - the matter is certainly strange.
At Wirecard, too, to put it mildly, things did not go optimally.
The financial supervisor subordinate to him has not caught up on the bank's fraud for far too long.
Scholz's financial planning can hardly be described as serious anymore. It does not provide any information about the real situation. Next year, the federal government will have to resort to the exception clause in the Basic Law for the third time. In the following year, Scholz can only comply with the debt rule thanks to a gigantic reserve, after which there is a gap.
The minister then sees “need for action” himself, but he signs the problems.
He is unrealistically pushing down spending plans for ministries and ignoring the dire state of social security.
Scholz brushed aside warnings from renowned economists.
When the independent advisory board of the Ministry of Economic Affairs pointed out that without reforms, half of the federal budget would soon have to flow into the pension fund, Scholz simply declared the authors to be incompetent.
Donald Trump sends his regards.
Scientists who don't like their criticism are crudely declared incompetent.
Taken full of mouth in tax policy
In tax policy, the front-line fighter of the SPD has mouthed full. When asked why the financial transaction tax should come in the EU now, although his predecessor Wolfgang Schäuble could not enforce it, Scholz answered confidently when he took office: "Now I am the responsible minister." It turned out differently, luckily you have to in the case say. In turn, Scholz has abolished the solidarity surcharge for the vast majority of citizens, but the minority of large taxpayers can continue to bleed. Since his first tax department head had legal concerns about this procedure, he was separated. But that does not mean that the constitutional risks of the rest of the solo are over.
Scholz managed to reform the property tax demanded by the highest court in good time, but most states are now going their own way because the federal model has too many disadvantages for them. Scholz still wants to achieve success with the minimum tax. In the future, it shouldn't matter where international companies do their business, they should pay tax on at least 15 percent of their profits. In addition, the tax revenue from globalization winners such as Google, Apple, Facebook or Amazon is to be redistributed in favor of the market states. This “tax revolution” is to be decided at the beginning of July.
Will she help Scholz in the election campaign? The minister has been his party's candidate for chancellor since last summer. Even if he is still confident of victory, the SPD has not since managed to break away from the 15 percent mark in the polls. Scholz could go down in history as a 15 percent man in a double sense.