Leave it to the Germans to turn a good thing into a bad one.
While there’s no denying that fiscal balance is a key component of a working state structure, the Germanic obsession with the theme – and with imposing it on Europe as a whole – is nothing short of legendary.
They went so far as to enshrine the ‘debt brake’ into their constitution – only to bypass it again, now to pay for Chancellor Scholz’s Climate Alarmist policies.
The Germans have a peculiar expression called schadenfreude: it means ‘the pleasure derived by someone from another person’s misfortune.’
That the Germans even need a word for this is a cultural data point that extrapolates the objective of this post, but suffice it to say this ‘misfortune-derived pleasure’ is many times now directed at Berlin.
As a commenter in X appropriately put it:
“For countries that spent years on the receiving end of Europe’s German-inspired fiscal Inquisition, there’s no sweeter sight than to see Germany splayed on the high altar of Teutonic parsimony.”
“For countries that spent years on the receiving end of Europe’s German-inspired fiscal Inquisition, there’s no sweeter sight than to see Germany splayed on the high altar of Teutonic parsimony.”
I’ve had a look at Germanys’s fake debt crisis…https://t.co/u6TaEY7H5T— matthew karnitschnig (@MKarnitschnig) November 27, 2023
Bloomberg reported:
“German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government approved a supplementary 2023 budget that includes the suspension of rules limiting net new borrowing for a fourth consecutive year.”
Read: ‘No, Scholz, You Can’t Use Leftover Pandemic Money in Your Climate Alarmist Policies’: German Constitutional Court
The new budget lifts the figure for net borrowing for this year by €25 billion ($27.4 billion) to €70.6 billion:
“[Finance Minister] Lindner initially insisted on restoring the borrowing mechanism this year after it was suspended to help deal with the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic and the energy crisis. The rules, enshrined in Germany’s constitution, can be temporarily set aside in the case of natural disasters or emergencies beyond the control of the government.”
What it means, as we learned, is that once you bend the rules for emergencies, there’ll be emergencies forever.
Read: British Conservatives Lowered Inflation Ahead of Goals, so They Are Giving Tax Cuts to Citizens – German Liberals Dug a Hole in the Budget, so They Are Ditching the ‘Debt Brake’ in a Panic
Lindner’s revised 2023 budget will now be sent to parliament for approval.
“Rolf Muetzenich, the head of the SPD caucus in the lower house of parliament, said Monday that such a move is justified as Germany is facing multiple challenges, not only the fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
‘We are not living in normal times,’ Muetzenich told reporters, urging opposition parties to help the government with a ‘constructive’ policy contribution.”
Read more:
German Priorities: Berlin Imposes a Spending Freeze Over Budget Crisis – AND ON THE SAME DAY, Releases a New 1.4B Military Aid Package to Ukraine
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