Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) warned for the first time in the Bundestag on Thursday of the federal government’s excessive debt due to the generous and ongoing financial aid in the pandemic. The government compensation will continue to be paid in December, she said in her government statement. But all citizens must be aware “that we cannot continue this kind of aid until the end of the day”.
Merkel and the prime ministers had fought hard on Wednesday evening in a seven-hour switching conference to extend the partial lockdown and continue the financial aid from November in December. In November and December, the federal government reimburses 75 percent of pre-Corona sales.
This support is “necessary and necessary,” said Merkel. At the same time, it left open whether the aid would continue in this form in 2021. “There will definitely be talk of doing things together,” she warned. The background to this is that contact restrictions, which are only hesitantly planned and implemented out of consideration for certain industries or political demands from the countries, ultimately lead to the number of infections remaining too high for a decision to be relaxed. This means that those sectors such as restaurants or hotels that are affected by closings continue to need help.
The federal debt had recently exploded. In September, when the infection rate was comparatively low, Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD) had planned additional loans of 96 billion euros for 2021. Since then, the additional financial requirement for 2021 has almost doubled to around 181 billion euros. In addition, Scholz plans to take out up to 218 billion euros in additional loans this year. This means that the federal government’s new debts that have to be borrowed because of the pandemic aid add up to a sum that corresponds to about an annual budget in pre-Corona times.
The Chancellor called on all citizens to show their solidarity with the sectors affected by closings such as gastronomy, hotel and cultural institutions, “which bear the burden of society as a whole, so that schools and daycare centers are open and we can operate”. Everyone would have to reduce contacts in such a way “that we also see effects”.
Union parliamentary group leader Ralph Brinkhaus criticized the fact that the Bundestag was not involved in the decisions on further financial aid. The budget and budget rests with the MPs, he said. He also criticized the state chiefs, saying that it was “not in order that they always take decisions and present the bill to the federal government”.
FDP leader Christian Lindner called for the December aid to be paid out unbureaucratically, “preferably by not making a new application procedure for December, but rather that the December aid is paid out with the November aid”. Eligible companies should be paid twice the amount once.
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