Official talks on a new Saxon government coalition not started. There is already the first argument – between the SPD and the CDU. It’s about 10 billion euros.
In a report commissioned by the SPD parliamentary group, Saxon financial lawyer and constitutional judge Uwe Berlit (68) lists how the money for education, digitization, energy and hospitals is to be raised – without violating the strict debt brake in the Saxon constitution.
This only allows new debts in emergency situations (like in 2020 at the beginning of the Corona crisis). A change would only be possible with a two-thirds majority in the state parliament. A corresponding initiative by the SPD and the Greens failed in the last legislative period due to resistance from the CDU parliamentary group.
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And in the new state parliament, the plan is even more hopeless. AfD and the Free Voters MP Matthias Berger (55) together have 41 seats and thus the blocking minority for constitutional changes, which both reject.
Saxon SPD parliamentary group leader: Dirk Panter
Photo: picture alliance/dpa/dpa-Zentralbild
Nevertheless, Berlit’s 88-page report lists options for raising the money in accordance with the constitution. These include sureties, guarantees or other warranties in favor of private investments. In addition, the expansion of the tasks of the Saxon Development Bank (SAB), the establishment of a state company for housing and infrastructure, and investments in infrastructure companies.
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Another possibility is access to the so-called Generation Fund (currently worth 12 billion euros), which is used to secure future civil servant pensions, among other things. This is “overfinanced,” said Panter, and announced that “all of this will play a role in the talks with BSW and CDU.”
The financial policy spokesman of the CDU parliamentary groupJan Löffler (43). He indirectly accused the SPD of “trickery”. They stand for “solid, weatherproof budget policy”. Debts “cannot simply be outsourced to public investment companies”. And: “The SPD is not given a free pass to use the capital of the Generation Fund for projects not intended for it,” Löffler fumed.
