The Union faction in the Bundestag positioned itself with a surprising move against the financing of the energy price brake planned by the traffic light: CDU and CSU are open to suspending the debt rule next year - after exhausting all other financing options.

This emerges from a motion for a resolution that the parliamentary group intends to put to the vote in the Bundestag on Friday.

It is available to the FAZ.

Manfred Schäfers

Business correspondent in Berlin.

  • Follow I follow

In the morning, in the final reading, the MPs will discuss the draft law, with which the traffic light wants to provide the economic stabilization fund with an additional 200 billion euros.

The funds are to flow to him in full this year, even if they are used to finance measures up to mid-2024.

For this purpose, the emergency clause in the debt rule should be used again.

“We stand by the debt brake in the Basic Law.

But that's why you have to be honest with her," said Union parliamentary group leader Mathias Middelberg of the FAZ. What Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) is doing now is symbolic.

He solemnly stressed that he would comply with the debt brake in 2023.

In fact, he keeps inventing new maneuvers to avoid them.

"Although you don't even come close to knowing what and how much money you need, freely imagined amounts in the billions are being accumulated in special budgets," criticized the CDU politician.

That is organized opacity.

"We have to go back to an honest budgetary policy that clearly shows us, year after year, when and how much debt we are actually incurring."

In its motion for a resolution, with which the opposition can present its position on ongoing legislative processes, the Union faction supports the traffic light's goal of relieving the burden on citizens and companies.

"The federal government's proposals for a 'defensive shield' are basically a step in the right direction," she says.

You need an electricity and gas price brake as soon as possible.

She considers the reactivation of the Economic Stabilization Fund to be understandable.

"But the coalition factions are bridling the horse from behind with the present draft law."

Before it was clear which measures were planned and what they cost, 200 billion euros were put in the shop window.

"A constitutionally required solution would be indicated and an accounting according to the annual needs to be expected." Currently, according to the ideas of the CDU/CSU, the fund should only receive what it needs this year.

It should be equipped in 2023 as part of the ongoing budget negotiations.

Reference is made to the leeway associated with the economic component, savings opportunities, the absorption of surpluses in the electricity market and the existing reserve.

Then comes the crucial sentence in a convoluted way: "The Federal Minister of Finance must explain and justify whether it may be objectively necessary and necessary to allocate further funds to the Economic Stabilization Fund in 2023 using the emergency clause of the Basic Law."