Court of Auditors
:
Lindner’s supplementary budget “constitutionally doubtful”
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Christian Lindner, Federal Chairman of the FDP and Federal Minister of Finance
Photo: dpa/Uli Deck
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Berlin The Federal Audit Office considers the supplementary budget submitted by Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) to be “constitutionally doubtful”. Lindner wants to reallocate 60 billion euros that were approved as loans due to the Corona crisis in 2021, but were not taken out.
The connection between the 60 billion euro allocation to the energy and climate fund and the fight against the corona pandemic is “not conclusively explained”, according to a statement published by the Bundestag for the budget committee.
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Lindner wants to reallocate 60 billion euros that were approved as loans due to the Corona crisis in 2021, but were not taken out. They should be put on the high edge in the special fund, so to speak, so that they do not expire but can still be used in the coming years.
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Among other things, the Court of Auditors criticizes that climate change is not an acute, sudden crisis, but a permanent challenge that has to be overcome with normal budget rules. The use of emergency loans can only be a last resort after all reserves have been exhausted. In addition, it is not conclusive that the Bundestag should subsequently change the budget of the previous year – if any necessary emergency loans could simply flow into the budget for 2022.
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The reallocation is important to Lindner, among other things, because he has promised to comply with the debt brake again from 2023. This only allows small new loans. At the same time, however, the new federal government has made major investments in climate protection, among other things.
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The CSU regional group chairman Alexander Dobrindt told the dpa that the Federal Audit Office was showing the federal government the red card. “The statement relentlessly exposes the traffic light’s brazen attempt to cheat the debt brake. The new government wants to take on debts today that it does not need in order to finance future expenses that it does not know.
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