German opposition chief: ‘undoubtedly’ no debt brake reform earlier than February vote

BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s conservative opposition chief and potential subsequent chancellor, Friedrich Merz, on Wednesday rejected a reform of the debt brake earlier than elections deliberate for Feb. 23.

The debt brake – which performed a component in breaking the coalition, precipitating the calling of a snap election – limits the general public deficit to 0.35% of gross home product and might solely be modified with a two-thirds majority within the higher and decrease homes of parliament.

“I can undoubtedly rule that out,” the Christian Democrats’ (CDU) Merz instructed Deutschlandfunk radio station.

“Lifting the debt brake simply earlier than the tip of this coalition has at all times been a transparent reply from us: No, we cannot do this,” Merz added.

Merz was considerably extra open, albeit sceptical, about after the election: “We will talk about the debt brake, however not if it includes merely growing spending, as a result of then all the opposite issues usually are not solved,” he mentioned.

State spending would first should be reformed earlier than he would think about a change to the debt brake, mentioned Merz, and even then, he was “very, very sceptical” as as to whether this was the appropriate method to create extra debt.

Merz had confirmed openness to reforming the brake, which was launched by his occasion beneath Angela Merkel, earlier this month after beforehand arguing the nation ought to keep it up.