The Prime Minister of Bavaria, Markus Söder (CSU), sees Germany in a severe state crisis following the problems in fiscal policy. “This government has mismanaged,” said Söder on Saturday in Nuremberg while announcing the party’s electoral lists for the upcoming year’s European elections.
Unlike in the past years with the Coronavirus pandemic and the Ukraine conflict, this crisis is self-inflicted. “We are not in a household crisis, we are in a government crisis,” said Söder. They have overreached in the matter of citizen benefits and made a serious mistake with the reintroduction of full VAT in the hospitality industry. “This has to be rectified.”
Söder opposes relaxing the debt brake
He vehemently opposed any relaxation of the debt brake to solve the fiscal problems that arose. A stable fiscal policy has made Germany great. Soundness must remain the foundation of policy in Germany and Europe.
Greens rebut Söder’s criticism
The Greens rejected Söder’s fundamental criticism. “Markus Söder is once again constantly pointing the finger at Berlin to distract from his own failures: Bavaria is lagging behind in expanding cheap wind power. This is a danger to the economic location. Economic policy and the CSU do not go together,” wrote Katharina Schulze, the Greens’ parliamentary leader in the Bavarian state parliament, on the platform X, formerly Twitter.
SPD state and parliamentary leader Florian von Brunn also rebuffed Söder’s criticism. “His aggressive attacks primarily benefit the AfD,” von Brunn wrote on the same platform. “His own record in Bavaria with wind power and energy transition is also modest. So he should stop the constant attacks and participate in joint solutions,” von Brunn demanded. For example, it is about smart solutions in reforming the debt brake.
