How can strong impulses for the German economy be financed? The Greens are suggesting a large-scale fund – which would also affect the debt brake.
The Greens are proposing a “Germany Investment Fund” for the federal, state and local governments to initiate an economic awakening. “We want to provide large-scale incentives for private investments in future technologies,” says a draft resolution for a parliamentary group meeting in Leipzig, which was first reported by “Spiegel”. The basis for the fund should be a reform of the debt brake in the Basic Law in order to be able to finance public investments permanently through loans.
The fund should aim to modernize and decarbonize the economy with national production facilities for technologies such as solar, wind, hydrogen or batteries. Investments in the rail network and bicycle traffic will also be financed. The fund should also provide “sufficient resources” for states and municipalities to partially finance necessary investments in school buildings, buses and trains, affordable apartments or swimming pools and sports fields on site. The draft does not provide any specific information about the volume of the fund.
Greens: The investment backlog is “gigantic”
Green party leader Katharina Dröge told “Spiegel”: “In their districts and villages, people notice when the bus doesn’t run, when there are no affordable apartments or when the roof of the school is leaking.” The proposed fund is therefore also “an invitation to the states and municipalities”. The faction meets from Tuesday to Thursday in Leipzig for a retreat.
“Without a reform of the debt brake, we will not be able to finance what is necessary,” says the draft, which is also available to the German Press Agency. “Too little has happened for too many decades. The investment backlog is therefore gigantic.” It is also a question of intergenerational justice, leaving behind a modern, functioning and climate-neutral country for children and grandchildren and no postponed burdens and dilapidated infrastructure. “Therefore, loans for financing are sensible political action and the economically right decision.”
Source: Stern
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