A constitutional court ruling on Nov. 15 against a budget manoeuvre to get around Germany's "debt brake" threw the financial plans of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's coalition into disarray.
"As I have long been saying, we must fear that the debt brake becomes ever more a brake on the future," said Berlin mayor Kai Wegner on social media platform X.
"The debt brake was implemented when Europe had a debt sustainability issue and Germany wanted to lead by example," he said.
"With the debt brake as it is, we have voluntarily tied our hands behind our backs and are going into a boxing match," he said.
The Greens' campaign programme ahead of the last election included debt brake reform to allow for greater investments.
Persons:
Olaf Scholz, Robert Habeck, Christian Lindner, Chancellor Olaf Scholz's, Reiner Haseloff, Haseloff, Kai Wegner, Friedrich Merz, Carsten Brzeski, Roderich Kiesewetter, Stefan Marschall, Andreas Rinke, Sarah Marsh, Matthias Williams, Holger Hansen, Nick Macfie
Organizations:
Climate, Finance, BERLIN, U.S, Intel, Reuters, AAA, Christian Democratic Union, CDU, Christian Social Union, CSU, Berlin, Free Democrats, Social Democrats, Greens, ING, SPD, University of Duesseldorf, Thomson
Locations:
Berlin, Europe's, Ukraine, Saxony, Anhalt, United States, Bavarian, Federal, Germany, Europe, France, Italy, Spain, China