German opposition leader Friedrich Merz said on Wednesday he was open to reforming the country’s constitutional brake on government spending.
Merz, widely seen as the favourite to succeed Chancellor Olaf Scholz after next year’s parliamentary elections, said that only the first 20 articles in the Basic Law, Germany’s constitution, are unchangeable.
“Everything else can of course be discussed,” said Merz at an economic conference organized by the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper in Berlin. There are 146 articles in the German constitution.
The debt brake – a fiscal rule restricting the German government’s ability to run budget deficits – was enshrined in Germany’s constitution in 2009 amid the fallout from the global financial crisis.
Supporters, including many lawmakers from Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), see the policy as a paradigm of fiscal responsibility.
On the other hand, critics believe the debt brake has prevented vital investments in the country’s infrastructure and social services.
Merz continued: “Of course it can be reformed. The question is: Why? For what purpose? What is the result of such a reform? Is the result that we spend even more money on consumption and social policy? Then the answer is no.”
If the brake were to be lifted to enable investments and increase prosperity, however, Merz said the “answer could be different.”
