With his draft budget, Christian Lindner wants to comply with the debt brake again. But that cannot work at all, criticizes the DGB boss and accuses the finance minister of being unrealistic.
DGB boss Yasmin Fahimi considers the draft for the 2023 federal budget presented by Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) to be unrealistic. “This financial planning is as realistic as the dream of perpetuum mobile,” said the chairwoman of the German trade union federation of the “Bild am Sonntag”. The country is in the middle of a crisis that threatens to lead to a recession. You don’t save in a recession. Rather, the state must invest and secure the social systems.
The plan of not raising taxes, complying with the debt brake and at the same time supporting small and middle incomes will not work, said Fahimi. ‘Someone will have to pay. Either the rich pay more, or the state takes on new debt, or the average citizen pays and becomes poorer. We will do everything we can to prevent the latter,” the trade unionist said.
Finance Minister Lindner presented the draft budget on Friday, after it had been approved in the Federal Cabinet. After three exceptional years, the debt brake anchored in the Basic Law is to be complied with again. “We simply cannot afford additional debt,” said the FDP leader.
