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Berlin (dpa) - Against the background of the Corona crisis, the Bundestag begins today with the final deliberations on the federal budget for 2021. First of all, Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD) wants to explain the plans before discussing the budgets of the individual departments by Friday.

Today the budget of the Chancellery is on the agenda, then traditionally the so-called general debate with Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) is scheduled.

The Bundestag will vote on the 2021 budget on Friday.

The budget is shaped by the Corona crisis.

More than a third of it is financed from debt.

The bottom line is spending of almost half a trillion euros.

To cope with the crisis, Scholz wants to take on around 180 billion euros in new debt and again suspend the debt brake in the Basic Law.

Originally, Scholz had expected 96 billion.

Large parts of the billions in aid for the companies affected by the partial lockdown will probably not be paid out until 2021.

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Scholz defended the budget.

The debts ensured that the state was able to act.

The foundations for growth and for being able to repay the debts would also be created, said the SPD politician on Monday evening in the ARD program “hard but fair”.

Scholz pointed out that after the last financial crisis, Germany had a national debt ratio of 80 percent, which was then pushed below 60 percent.

After this crisis you will be just over 70 percent.

The budget policy spokesman for the Union parliamentary group, Eckhardt Rehberg, pointed out that the budget volume would rise to around 500 billion, because 90 billion euros in special corona expenses were planned.

In addition, the citizens would be relieved of ten billion euros in solos, they received a total of three billion euros more child benefit and another four billion through the reduction in income tax, said the CDU politician of the "Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung".

Meanwhile, the Greens are warning of austerity rounds after the Corona crisis.

"There must be no broken savings after Corona," said housekeeper Sven-Christian Kindler of the German Press Agency.

"The wrecking ball must not come after the bazooka."

Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD) described the government's unlimited loan approval at the beginning of the crisis as a “bazooka”.

The Greens are now calling for politically binding guarantees that after the crisis, neither in Germany nor in Europe, will embark on a tough austerity course.

An investment program with 500 billion euros by 2030 is necessary, said Kindler.

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The state could afford to fight the pandemic.

It is extremely dangerous that some in the Union are questioning this.

"Anyone who now says to the CDU and CSU that we can no longer afford this creates insecurity, destroys trust and risks decreasing acceptance of the necessary restrictions," criticized Kindler.

The Federal Republic of Germany can currently borrow money on very favorable terms.

"In such a situation, foregoing loans to overcome a deep economic crisis would be extremely dangerous."

FDP leader Christian Lindner had already warned on Monday that the pandemic should not be a free ticket to getting into debt.

The state must help those affected in the pandemic, but the federal government will take on more debts in the coming year than it should, Lindner said on the sidelines of a parliamentary group meeting.

The FDP had made suggestions that the net borrowing should be halved and at the same time a relief for citizens and companies was possible.

Chancellor Merkel had already defended the immense new debt at the weekend.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the goal has been to mobilize financial resources to counter this, said Merkel in her latest video podcast.

"The costs would be even higher - financially and socially - if many companies collapsed and millions of jobs were lost."

The federal government could also use large sums in 2021 because the budget was good in recent years.

At the same time, the Chancellor made it clear that the current level of support could not be continued indefinitely.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 201207-99-608471 / 2